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vhstown · 2 years ago

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ain't no love; pt. 3

"ain't no love and it's sure 'nuff a pity"

— miles g morales x gn!reader series

SUMMARY: Miles G Morales is just a kid without a father; the Prowler is just a "rotten" vigilante. Both of them start coming into your life — one in the middle of the semester, the other by total accident.

SERIES MASTERLIST 📼 ← PART 2 / PART 3 / PART 4 →

chapter summary: [DUAL POV] The Prowler is someone you never thought you'd run into. Miles thought the exact same thing.

content/warnings: grotesque imagery, depictions of panic and fear, violence, arguments, etc.

word count: 5.8k (dear god)

a/n: thanks to @qiupachups for proofreading cause lord knows i wouldn't have... im not ok guys like actua

“And over here is our robotics department — my favourite, personally.”

All you could think about as the man in front of you talked your ears off — and walked your legs off — was how on Earth you ended up here, rooms and corridors deep into the Oscorp Industries. Trying not to get hit by speeding interns or bump into equipment that cost more than your school uniform, you’d been taking in the winding laboratories and offices that were well past the flashy displays at the reception for the past hour or so, led by the one and only… well, the man had yet to introduce himself since excitedly deciding to take you on a tour. Forming connections, as Ms. Weber had put it, was more exhausting than you’d thought.

“Take a look at this arm for a moment — trained completely on artificial intelligence, and moves just like the real thing!”

You just smiled and nodded, the muscles in your neck starting to hurt from the action. As you did, the metal prosthetic spurred into life, swaying and flexing its bulky fingers in what looked random enough; how realistic it seemed was debatable, though. You noticed small, engraved initials on the wrist, reading “O.G.O”, much like the prototypes in the flashy displays downstairs. You’d seen nothing of the sort up here until now, though. Maybe this one was was just special.

Regardless, you really needed to sit down at some point — preferably in some corner so people could stare at you less. There was always someone throwing furtive glances your way, and right now it seemed to be a gaunt-looking man you’d seen slinking around the department, now in the little laboratory full of strange-looking arms and mechanisms that weren’t nearly as functional as the “A.I” powered one.

“Thank you, Doctor…” You squinted, the faded remnants of the name “MENDEL STROMM” forming on his badge. “Stromm.”

“Professor. Professor Stromm,” he corrected, earnest yet almost with pride. “I always felt like a teacher at heart, anyway.”

You only managed to make it halfway through your umpteenth nod before something caught the corner of your eye. The catching of light from somewhere above you, just for a moment — insignificant, really. It seemed to catch your attention long enough for Professor Stromm to notice your attention had gone elsewhere, though.

“Oh, I must be tiring you. Do you like coffee?” You barely had a chance to open your mouth. “I'll get us both some coffee, God knows I need it— just give me a minute!”

Before you could answer, the man skittered away, his rounder frame creating a noticeable dispersion the sea of people moving through the hall until he was nowhere to be seen.

That left you, a random kid, in the robotics laboratory with probably more than one pair of eyes on you. Or maybe not; when you let yourself look around, there didn’t seem to be anyone in the lab at the present moment. Thank God.

A long-overdue sigh left your chest. As much as you'd been lucky to run into Stromm by the reception (before the less-than-polite receptionist could tell you to beat it), you never expected to be running around so much from place to place, trying to make mental notes of everything he'd been saying.

So far, you had “A.I. arm”, something about “gene editing”, some other thing about “99% efficient generators” and a whole other string of scientific jargon thrown in between half-finished explanations and sporadic spurs of Stromm’s recollection. Admittedly, it stressed you out a little; you constantly had the urge to take a piece of pen and paper and record everything he was saying but you only needed a few brief ideas to go off of on your college essay. That was, if you were even going to go into the science field. You still hadn’t decided, though, if you were going to keep performing like how you did right now in your AP classes, you’d probably have your decision made for you soon enough at the back of those lifeless vegan diners opening up everywhere.

Maybe you could get an internship here, if you were lucky enough. Had you been showing enough enthusiasm? It was hard to match. In fact, the man was so enthusiastic he drained the enthusiasm from you. His passion was admirable, but also somewhat pitiful — like he had nobody to truly share his passions with it. At least until a bumbling, bashful sophomore from Visions came along. You’d rather not think about it too hard — this room was starting to make you feel dizzy. It was like there was something wrong with the ventilation, but you didn’t dare go out, given you’d probably get lost in a minute or two.

It was a week into winter break already, and the realisation made you wince. Just a couple weeks into January and you'd be head-first into exams again, while all your friends who went to other schools lived their lives. Visions just had to be different, it looked like. A couple more of Mr Wellston’s unbearable classes before that, though — instead of learning any math, you’d mastered the art of having one eye on your handout and the other on Miles’.

Miles Morales — you’d almost forgotten about him. Almost. It wasn’t hard, given how every text you’d send him had been left on read. He could’ve been busy, (or given you the wrong number) but the dread of being in that careers fair full of freshmen alone was staring to creep up on you. At least a little confirmation that he wouldn’t disappear off of the face of the Earth this semester would be nice.

Hey?

There was a twang in your chest as you looked over your barren chat.

Read at 2:41AM

…What unethical sort of time is that? He could just be bad at texting — or he just decided to hate your guts now. Either seemed unfortunately probable. Were you enemies, or something? Were you supposed to be annoyed? You’d known this kid for a couple weeks at most. Maybe it was weird of you for wanting to get his number so soon. Miles had his own life, even though he walked you back to your apartment in the middle of nowhere that one time. Why did you even care so much?

Maybe there just wasn't enough time in the day for the both of you.

Beep!

To your surprise, Stromm had come back faster than usual. He had a hand over his face, adjusting his glasses, but… no coffee in sight. The door locked automatically behind him, his badge wrung awkwardly around his neck, like he’d just thrown it on.

“Is the coffee machine broken, or something…?”

“They're completely out of cups, I'm sorry.”

“It's alright.” You could’ve really use that coffee right now, you thought.

Still, you smiled at him, feeling the ache in your face smile with you. The man seemed to be pondering something, standing still with a slightly tense expression on his face. He looked like he could’ve used that coffee too.

“Are you okay, Professor?” You tried asking this as unassumingly as you could, but it got a twitch out of him anyway.

“Yes, yes, I've just lost my train of thought…”

You waited, the faint murmurs down the hallway and the strangled breath of the ventilation system above filling the void of silence.

“Are we going to the next floor…?” you suggested.

“No, no,” he said in that melodic way he did, putting a finger up. At least he was somewhat like himself — just thinking, is all.

You decided to be patient, turning your head to stretch your neck slightly, feigning interest in the light fixtures above.

Just what the hell was that gigantic, moving shadow on the ceiling?

“Um, well I think we should go, it’s kind of warm in here—”

“Actually, I think you could do something for me.”

“What is it…?” Your eye twitched as you noticed a figure starting to form from the shadow.

“You see that robotic arm?” The one on display or the one sticking out of the god damn ceiling? “I think you should try it on.”

“What? Really?” It felt like something you’d get in trouble for, but nobody else seemed to be around — except for, you know, the dark humanoid figure right above you. “I— I think I need to use the bathroom first.”

“It’ll be quick. I mean, it’s already hooked up!” Stromm was already reaching for the device.

“No, it’s okay—”

Krrrrr… Bzzzzt!

The room flooded with darkness. Every light had gone out at the same time, the whirr of machines and electricity dying out.

“What on Ear—”

All but for a blur of reddish-magenta light.

Before you could open your mouth, the sound of a ruthless, metallic thud emerged, immediately followed by the crunching of glass, and then a choked breath.

Your vision suddenly sharpening in the little light there was, you could make out the silhouette of Stromm, staggering into the display which held the arm. Where he’d just been was now a foot, faint purplish light glowing from the underside of a shoe.

And then, a grating mechanical sound followed — it sounded like something was snapping over and over, like the arm you’d seen in the display as it moved its joints. A rim of light flickered around what looked to be a sleeve, which was attached to a giant, metallic set of claws, the sharp edges of which caught the light.

“Who are you?! W—What are you doing here?!” the professor shouted out, his feet heavy and erratic on the floor as he tried to ease himself up. His voice came out strange and desperate, strained, almost unfamiliar. You’d think it was someone else if you didn’t know it was Stromm.

All you could do was watch, taking tiny, careful steps back as you tried not to breathe. The figure moved forward, at an unnatural angle, turning as its mechanical claw clenched and unclenched in a now almost seamless movement. You caught the edge of a strange emblem, scrawled messily across the front of what looked to be a suit. It was familiar, and it sickened you once you realised.

“—In this morning’s report we investigate a disturbing string of robberies and break-ins, suspected to be carried out by a criminal duo including—”

There was no mistake — that was…

“The Prowler,” a voice answered for you, crackling and modulated.

“—Norman Obsorn suspects that Oscorp supply chains have been intercepted—”

An ear-piercing buzzing emerged from the air as threads of energy sputtered from the glowing core of his arm device, climbing rapidly up to the centre of his palm. What formed was a concentrated mass of ebnergy, undulating between the claws and casting harsh shadows around the room. Your eyes darted to Stromm, heart in your throat as you expected to meet a horrified, helpless version of the expression he had mere moments ago — it was anything but.

His face was stuck, slack — near dead. And as you watched the energy inevitably grow, his face began to change. What was once the face of Professor Stromm amalgamated into a shapeless, fleshless form, his skin receding into itself and leaving pallid, bloodless sheets of muscle, twitching with thick shadows in the ever-expanding light. As he lifted his head, deep, glowing pits were in place of his eyes.

The same strange voice that came out of the face, you realised, had never been Stromm’s to begin with.

“You are making a mistake.”

Before you could react, your skin singed with heat, sparks rushing past like missiles as the room threatened to explode into white. That was what finally gave you the sense to run.

“—It seems the notorious criminal and his accomplice have increased their activity among a concerning rise of organised crime. Authorities think they could be affiliated with what is coming to be known as ‘The Sinister Six’—”

CRASH!

Beyond your covered ears, a dull boom reverberated through the lab, a million broken shards of glass and plastic flashing with the aftershock. If you were hurt, you didn’t know, adrenaline ushering through your body. Your heartbeat was sharp and loud, your hands were shaking, bile was coming up your throat.

Get me out of here get me out of here get me out of here leave leave leave leave—

Your eyes were painfully wide, stinging with tears, yet everything was overwhelming and sharp and bright — that was when you saw it.

Glass case. Fist. You gritted your teeth.

CRRAAACK!

Big. Red. Panic button.

SLAM!

Instantly, the room exploded with red, blaring light, sirens howling through the room and beyond the door, the lock disabled. You caught one last gaze from those white electric slits before scampering into the hallway, door slamming shut behind you. All you could hear was the clatter of your feet in tandem with your thundering heart, throat too dry to scream. You just needed to get out of here, they couldn’t catch up with you — they wouldn’t.

Shoving past alarmed faces, you advanced to the end of the hall. Stairs — safest bet.

You scrambled down the dingy stairwell, hip throbbing with pain as you turned sharply against the railing down to the next floor. Sweat prickled at your skin, and you tried to breathe. The stairs seemed endless, but you were soon on the bottom floor, dragging yourself to follow everyone else leaving the building. Until you got out, you wouldn’t slow down.

Staggering into the cold, thin wind bit at your skin, the faint cry of police sirens from somewhere you couldn’t see. You tore the visitor’s badge from around your neck, filling your lungs again in big, painful gulps and squeezing your stinging eyes shut.

Never have you been more grateful to breathe in the musty Brooklyn air that you so, so hated.

“Miles…”

“I wasn’t fuckin’ thinking straight!”

“Miles.”

“I swear I had him I just—”

“Miles!”

“What?!”

“Jesus Christ, man. Calm your shit!”

Miles tensed as Aaron gave him a firm slap on the shoulder, the sick feeling in his throat easing just a little.

“It ain’t your fault.” The cool, collected voice of Uncle Aaron, much to his dismay, managed to break through his racing mind. It was his fault — everything was his fault. He’d messed up everything!

“Yes the fuck it is!”

“Watch yo’ mouth.” Aaron had a sudden severity in his tone, kicking Miles back into normality.

“Sorry,” he mumbled back.

Miles elbowed the punching bag beside him, unable to meet his uncle’s eyes. He’d let the man they’d been chasing for the past month to get away, all because he’d been too hasty — too immature. And you had made a stupidly smart decision to press that damn alarm.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he mutters again, voice seeming to fight itself.

“It’s not your fault,” Aaron repeats.

“He’s gon’ kill more people regardless. He could’ve killed—” He bit his lip, hard; your name was right at the back of his throat.

Aaron met his gaze again, but he didn’t give him the courtesy of returning it, eyes stuck to the ground.

“…There sumn’ you’re not tellin’ me?” Aaron asked.

Miles just shrugged, bottom lip freeing itself with the lingering sting of his teeth. There was probably a lot more than there should be that he hadn’t told his uncle.

Walking over to the drawer, he pulled out the dusty old case file. It had tattered corners and the paper had a weird feel to it, like it was from a long time ago: 3 years, to be exact. It was an older case that had re-emerged some time ago — the last case his dad was involved in.

Flicking it open, he was met with all the reports and notes, ones he’d grown sick of seeing: “Unidentifiable suspect”, “vague circumstances” and “unverifiable” were some of the few reasons why. They weren’t going down the “typical” route of investigation, but it didn’t make it any easier that they could break down a few doors without a warrant.

For the past month, Miles had been searching for leads, clues, chasing down suspects of these missing person’s cases — all of them leading him right back to where he started. Every time he thought he was getting closer, he’d go back a hundred steps. Everything about this case lacked any sense of logic; people would disappear without any sort of reason, completely by random. There was no pattern to these cases, except for the fact that whatever circumstances that surrounded them were vague and undetailed.

No name, no face, no form. But he’d finally managed to catch the fish at the end of the hook, following someone who had yet to go missing: a certain scientist at Oscorp industries, who worked in robotics and hadn’t been seen for 24 hours, but showed up to work the next day somehow.

That man had followed another scientist — Mendel Stromm — only to come back in his body. Miles had let it happen, out of necessity, he thought — to finally see what was going on. And he did, he saw the man transform into Stromm. He saw the man walk back into the laboratory and act as it nothing had happened.

And then, he saw you.

You. He wasn’t blaming you for this, was he? No, it wasn’t your fault, you just happened to be… in severe danger.

Miles could’ve prevented this, had he not been so desperate — so conflicted. He could’ve texted you back, told you to stay away from Oscorp instead of typing and deleting the same awkward replies late at night.

And he was supposed to go back to school and see you, and do that job fair with you, right after he’d saved— Right after you saved yourself — from the Prowler. From him.

“You alright?” Miles whipped his head around to see Aaron looking at him, a slight hint of concern in his face.

“Yeah—” He stopped himself from saying sorry. “Gonna head home.”

Miles pushed the drawer shut, feeling the eyes of the people he’d left behind on him — more recently, Mendel Stromm. He wondered if they blamed him just as he blamed himself.

As he walked back to his apartment, he slipped on his jacket — Uncle Aaron’s jacket. He even felt guilty for wearing it, damn it.

Shutting the door and world outside behind him, he took a hesitant glance at the shoe rack. His mom’s shoes were missing.

“Took an extra shift. Dinner’s in the microwave. Tqm!" (Ily!)

“Y yo te quiero,” (And I love you) he mutters to himself, careful not to crease the note between his fingers.

At least she’d never find out. His mom would be off work soon, so he’d get to spend time with her, hopefully. He was just busy himself, with school starting again next week, the job fair, a million different quizzes, meetings with the guidance counsellor…

His dad’s anniversary was right in-between that.

Miles folded up the note, and then tossed it in the trash. All he wanted to do was go to sleep, but he hadn’t done any of his work for the winter break.

So, with a deep breath, he headed to his room, sitting at his desk. Miles tried to ignore the numerous sketches of his own gear, and half-finished faces as he tried looking for a pen in his drawers.

One drawing caught his eye, a familiar face. Well, it wasn’t exactly a face. It wasn’t finished yet, but he could picture the way it’d look if it were finished. It was “a friend”, he’d practised telling himself in case his mom decided to clean his room without telling him — you, without an expression but the curve of your cheek and the start of your hair he’d been so focused on instead of your eyes whenever he’d talked to you.

“~Ain’t no love… and it’s sure ‘nuff a pity…”

As he opened his notebook, faint music played from his phone, in an attempt to get him to focus. Still, he wondered if you’d find it weird that he drew you, how you’d look at him if you ever knew about it.

Miles wondered how you’d look at him if you knew he was the one at Oscorp — The Prowler.

“Guys, I don’t think he’s coming.”

“No shit!” The sound of laughter burst out in the room. All you could do was sigh, head on your desk.

Winter break had gone faster than you’d expected, especially given the amount of time you spent in the police station. They asked you the same questions, over and over and over, until you started to doubt your own memory. It was probably necessary, to prove you weren’t lying, or something, but it was exhausting, and you were just glad it was over.

“Why were you in Oscorp to begin with?”

“Do you remember the exact time it was before he left?”

“Are you certain it was Dr. Stromm that walked in?”

“You’re sure?”

You didn’t want to think about it, and you didn’t need anyone else to know either. It was better to pretend nothing happened, and that you’d had a productive break like everyone else apparently did. Bunch of try-hards.

The problem now, though, was that Mr. Wellston thought it’d be a good idea to disappear on you right before your midterm. He was supposed to finish teaching integration by now, but your class was far from — and of course, it was coming up on the exam.

You didn’t have a supply teacher either, though that was a good thing. Maybe Wellston would get fired, you’d get a new calc teacher, and all would be right in the world. But for now, you had to deal with these overly-pretentious people you called your classmates, (and always seemed to be okay with Wellston’s incompetence for some reason) talk about how easy the exam was gonna be, and about the homework that Mr. Wellston never checked anyway, and about college — because all anyone ever cared about here was getting into an Ivy. Maybe you should’ve just gone to public school. You pushed that thought back before you could seriously started to consider it.

Instead, your thoughts went to the person slouched at the desk next to you: Miles, the kid that had suddenly lost all interest in talking to you entirely. It wasn’t just the boredom of having Calc BC last period, too. For one, he’d never try to start conversations anymore, and two, you couldn’t even hold a conversation with him if you wanted to. When you greeted him in the hallway today, he just walked past, not even bothering to look at you. Maybe he hadn’t been busy over winter break like you thought — he’d just been ignoring you.

“Bro, that’s Principal Evans! Shut up!”

You squinted your eyes, heart dropping as you saw the Principal advance down the hallway, right towards your class. Miles didn’t move at all. In fact, he looked like he was… asleep?

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

“Miles…!” you whisper-shouted, shaking his shoulder to no avail.

Sighing, you thought about slapping him for a moment before deciding against it, shaking his shoulder it a second time, The boy got up with a start.

“Huh…? Wha… what? What do you want?”

“Prin… ci… pal..!” you mouthed, furrowing your brows at him and pointing to the door.

“Oh, damn…” He stifled a yawn, rubbing his eyes before straightening up on his chair. As much as Miles liked to annoy teachers, anyone would quickly come to learn that annoying Principal Evans was a death wish — from both her, and your parents.

As he fixed up, you caught a glimpse of his face for the first time today. So much for promising to not look at him. Exhausted wasn’t enough to describe it — he looked like he’d gone to war, or something. At least you’d managed to sleep well enough, without dreaming about Oscorp. Count your blessings, I guess.

You didn’t have much time to relish in your few blessings, though, as the tall, well-dressed woman stopped by the door. She peered in, before her brows knitted together, opening the door.

“Y’all don’t have a teacher?” she said, in that quick, strong voice that put you all on edge. Some of you had the confidence to mutter a “no.” or shake your head. “Who are you supposed to have?”

She shook her head as your class answered, pulling out her phone.

“Gimme one second. I don’t care if the period’s almost over. Fifteen minutes of class is fifteen minutes of class…”

You held back the urge to sigh again. If Wellston showed up, he’d probably force you all to stay back an hour and “catch up”. That, and you had the careers fair to help out with right after this period. The door closed again as Principal Evans took a call outside, and you let your eyes shut.

“Hey Martin, I’ve got a class here that…” Her voice fading into the background and your class starting to murmur again, you opened your eyes, only to catch Miles’ gaze just for a second.

“What?” you said, looking at him, though it came out a little too confrontational.

“What?” he mirrored back, though it came out a little too much like a statement. Miles — always good at making you feel stupid, you supposed.

“What’s up with you today?” you started, deciding it was better to bite the bullet.

“Nothing. Why?” Maybe not.

“Are you going to the careers fair…?”

“I kind of have to.” You probably should’ve slapped him when you had the chance.

“…Yeah, but—”

“Alright! Silence!” Principal Evans was at the door, holding it open with her foot. “Nobody’s comin', so y’all gotta do some work until the bell. I do apologise.”

There was a little commotion as people “got to work”, and you shot Miles one last glare before pretending to be interested in the notebook you’d had closed all period.

And so, fifteen minutes passed by with the sound of scribbling next to you, and when you stubbornly tried to peek, his arm just had to be in the way.

A lot was in the way between you two, it felt like. So much for being friends.

The bell finally rang, and you stretched a little as people left, preparing yourself for another hour or two before you could go back to your dorm. At least you wouldn’t have to talk to Miles, you had… freshman to talk to. Maybe this was a learning opportunity — I hated freshman, but from participating in a careers event at my school, I learnt that they’re not just people I have to shove past to get into the cafeteria. At least you didn’t have to put that abysmal sentence in your college essay until next year.

The chair next to you screeched, making you jump a little. You stopped yourself from cursing under your breath, noticing Principal Evans still lingering by the door. She was ushering the last people out, a crease between her brows.

“What class is this?” Her voice was directed at you, you realised.

“Calc BC,” you replied.

“Calc BC…” She seemed to emphasise every sound as she talked, as if she was thinking about something important. “Well aren’t you a bright bunch?” You managed a tiny smile, feeling like you weren’t a part of that “bunch” at the moment.

“I don’t mean to bother you, but… do you know what happened to Mr. Wellston?” you asked, slinging your backpack over your shoulder. You couldn’t believe you were asking about him, but you really needed to figure out how you were gonna pass — and soon.

“I know as much as you do,” she shrugs, earrings swaying as she turns her head back to her phone. “If you wait, I might be able to find out for you. Is it urgent?”

“I mean…” you started, before you felt a slight nudge at your arm.

“We’re gonna be late.” Miles gave you an unreadable look, and for some reason you relented.

“It’s fine, Principal. Thank you.”

“Take care now.” She moved out of the way for you to leave, but before you did, she spoke up again. “Oh, and Miles — I’m already making arrangements, so expect me to call you up at some point.”

“Cool. I mean— okay, thanks,” he mumbled, starting to walk down the hall.

You followed, having to push to keep up among the many students that were moving past. Damn fast walkers…

Feeling the uncomfortable need to talk, you opened your mouth. “We’re going to the gymnasium, right?”

“Yeah.”

“When can we leave?”

“Like, 6pm, or something.” Great.

“That late? How long’s the fair?”

“Thought you’d know.” Oh, maybe.

“I would, if someone told me,” you huffed under your breath.

There was another stretch of silence between you, the school starting to empty as you walked towards the other side where the gymnasium was. Miles didn’t have his earphones in, so there wasn’t much of an excuse for you to be ignored. Somehow, that made you feel less confident to speak.

“How was your break…?” you tried. He was unresponsive for a moment before shrugging.

“Boring.”

“...Yeah, same.” You didn’t sound very certain. The look he gave you made it clear he could tell. There was an uncomfortable pause that made you regret talking in the first place.

“…You okay?” he asked, suddenly.

“What?”

He took in a deep breath, looking at you more seriously. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah… why?” You raised your brow at him, even if he couldn’t see.

“Don’t need a reason to ask.”

“I’m pretty sure you do.”

“It was a rhetorical question.”

“How the hell was that a rhetorical question?”

“That one’s rhetorical too.”

When you realised what he meant, you couldn’t help but smile slightly at the stupidity of your conversation. You thought you caught the corner of his mouth raise too.

“Good thing Ms. White doesn’t pick on you, then,” you joked.

“Watch it, I got an A in English.” The way he said it almost made you laugh. Almost. You wouldn’t give him that.

“Right. And what don’t you have an A in?”

“Calculus.”

“No way…” You gave him a dubious look. “Seriously?”

“A plus.” He was definitely holding back a smile.

“Shut up.” You held back your own smile, too.

The both of you made it to the halfway-point of the campus, where the greenery and outdoor seating was — the place where they’d take all the promotional pictures. If only they could maintain the rest of the school like that too. Though you had to admit, it was a nice day out for January.

Miles stayed silent as you walked. You decided to stay skeptical for now, but a part of you also really just wanted to get along with him. Better than being annoyed at his existence for the next 2 hours.

Maybe he’d just had a bad day — or a bad winter break. He’d been absent for a while, anyway. That wasn’t for no reason. Maybe he just had a lot on his plate. A lot to catch up with, especially.

“How are you getting As anyway? Haven’t you like… missed a lot of classes?”

“I guess.” He shrugged, and the setting sun made it clear that he looked more frazzled and tired than usual. His hair looked like it hadn’t been re-braided in a while, though you wouldn’t tell him that.

Still, when he squinted uncomfortably at the sunlight shining right in your direction, you couldn’t help but notice his eyes again. One was slightly more green, the other slightly brown, coppery flecks in each. They were barely distinguishable in the dim fluorescent light of the school, but you couldn’t help but stare.

He was damn pretty. He was everything, it seemed. Smart, interesting, unique, mysterious, good-looking… You cringed at the realisation that this probably wasn’t a normal thing to think about someone you were supposed to be mad at. Were you supposed to be mad at him…?

“Guess everyone that goes here is a genius huh?” you continued in a rhetorical fashion, a part of you hoping he’d made the same awful joke again,

“That include Rafael?” You pressed your lips together at the mention, stopping the laugh from forming.

“He’s…” you tried, and failed. “Definitely something.”

“You’re smart, though.” You almost stopped walking. He said it so quietly you almost thought you’d misheard.

“I am literally failing Calc.”

“You’re almost failing Calc,” he corrected.

“I will be failing Calc in a week’s time.” You might as well admit it. The thought of that exam next week was hopeless.

“You ain’t even that bad at it.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s just practice.”

“Right, right, yeah. I’ll do that.” You didn’t sound very reassured. Miles didn’t seem to be in the mood for reassuring, either, shoving his hands in his pockets.

As you approached the gymnasium, you recognised more of those colourful, weirdly-designed posters, the ones you’d posted around school. Who even made those…?

Someone else was in the distance, walking around the corner. You did a double-take as you elbowed Miles.

“Hey, is that…?” You trailed off, the two of you stopping abruptly.

“The hell is he doing here?”

“No clue. Why’s he coming this wa—”

Suddenly, you felt yourself being pulled behind one of the pillars, and then directly facing Miles.

“What are you doing?!” you whisper-shouted.

“Just shut up for a sec…!” he whisper-shouted back, widening his eyes at you before peering past your less-than suitable hiding place.

His face was just a breath away from yours, arm blocking you from moving, or really seeing what he was so desperately trying to look at. Your heart was starting to thump in your ears, and you couldn’t find it in you to breathe, eyes fixed on his hand curled around your wrist for a moment before he let go, focusing on what was in the distance.

“Nobody’s seen him all day,” he mutters to you.

“Yeah, I know, but why are we hiding?”

“He’s— Just keep still.” He giving you a warning look, much like the one he gave Rafael — this time, with a hint of worry.

Deciding to keep your mouth shut, you dared to look past the pillar, just as he did.

There, approaching the gymnasium back door, was Mr. Wellston. The man came to a stop, walking awkwardly beside the wall, glancing around as if he was trying to avoid something.

In a split second, he disappeared behind one of the pieces of foliage. Miles stared hard, grabbing your arm and advancing the two of you closer. You were confused, before Miles’ grip on your sleeve tightened. Only then did you see it.

Almost seamlessly, Wellston disappeared, taking on the form of a police officer, yellow visitor’s badge around his neck — P.C. Williams, officer for the careers fair.

“Jesus Christ…” Miles muttered, eyes fixed on him, right until he went through the gymnasium doors.

You thought the exact same thing.

thanks for reading and soz for the VERY late update im literally being teabagged by my real life lol! lmk how u found it yasss like and subscribe hit that bell

reblogs super appreciated! go back to the series masterlist here or find the rest of my atsv stuff here!

my lovely jubly taglist: (ask in replies to join!) @noetophat @sakura-onesan @bakugouswaif @qiupachups @phoenixinthefiles @daydreaming-en-pointe @sp1derw1re @kvvrc @proudgojofucker @spam-1

#miles g morales x reader #42!miles x reader #42!miles morales x reader #atsv fanfiction #earth 42 miles x reader #prowler miles x reader #miles g morales #miles g #42!miles #miles gonzalo morales #prowler miles #atsv x you #atsv #across the spiderverse #atsv x reader #vhstown

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snazzycryptid · 7 months ago

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Since Mycology Qi’s unique fungi seems to be a Pilobolus—aka hat thrower/dung cannon fungus because they launch their sporangium (black tip of the fungus) at high speeds as a spore dispersal method—and they act sort of like assistants in her research, I think it would be funny to imagine them shooting spores at her teammates to keep them from disturbing her.

She wouldn’t even have to turn around or acknowledge them, Qi could just be focused on reviewing an experiment report before Frederick enters the lab tent to talk to her.

Frederick: “Miss Shiyi, I-”

*Pop pop pop SPLAT*

Frederick, still standing in the doorway with his face & uniform now splattered with spores: “…I’ll just come back later.”

Or one of the sporangium hits him in the eye and he screams in pain which only then gets Qi’s attention. Either way, he learns not to intrude while she’s working. Or at least wear eye protection upon entering just in case.

#identity v #coa 7 #coa vii #qi shiyi #idv antiquarian #frederick kreiburg #idv composer #luchino would have an advantage because of his gas mask so nothing gets on his face #they’d probably be chill with ada for some reason. maybe out of recognition/respect or somethin #cryptids yap time

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cherryywrites · 1 year ago

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happy lny ficlet

Dexter walks into his laboratory, a fresh cup of coffee in hand, and finds himself face-to-face with a hot pink tiger.

He freezes in his tracks.

The tiger stares him down with an air of nonchalance, perched atop his keyboard as if it owns the place. Meanwhile, a continuous stream of 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' is scrolling rapidly across the monitor behind it, echoing the internal scream that Dexter's struggling to suppress.

Then the predator gives a great big yawn, displaying a very large, very sharp set of teeth.

"Heh heh...nice...kitty..." Dexter coos. He starts backing away, being very careful not to spill his coffee, even though his hand is starting to tremble.

Its large, glassy eyes blink slowly at him, ear twitching. Dexter gulps. In the back of his mind, much like the ceaseless stream of vowels rolling across his monitor, his brilliant brain helpfully supplies him with a barrage of tiger facts, narrated by a suspiciously Attenborough-esque voiceover. Tigers have been observed pouncing at speeds of up to 10 to 15 meters per second in short bursts. A tiger's bite force ranges from about 500 to 1000 pounds per square inch. This is strong enough to crush the skulls and bones of their prey in a matter of seconds...

"HI DEXTER!" DeeDee shouts from behind him. Dexter jumps, and coffee splashes out of his mug and right onto his lab coat. The hot liquid spills all over the floor.

"DEEDEE, RUN!" He shrieks, but his panic is soon dispersed when DeeDee starts laughing at him.

"Awwww, did Princess Floofy scare you?" DeeDee walks on over to the tiger, neatly stepping around the remnants of Dexter's morning breakfast. To his utter horror, she reaches up to the tiger's jaw and starts giving it scritches on the chin.

"Who's a good girl? Yes you are, yes you are-" The tiger closes its eyes and a deep, rumbling purr emits from its throat as DeeDee continues her ministrations.

"DeeDee, stop that." Dexter says, recovering himself. "That's a dangerous predator, not a housecat!"

"Actually, housecats are dangerous predators as well." A familiar nasally voice interrupts him. "Well, to the wrong people, of course."

Turning around, he realizes that behind him is none other than Mandark, who is pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose smugly. (The glasses immediately fall back down afterwards, though, which diminishes the evil genius effect quite soundly). He's wearing his all-red cape today rather than his black and red one, but the rest of his dorky outfit is the same.

"Mandark!! What are you doing here?!" Dexter scowls, brandishing his nearly-empty mug of coffee at him. A little bit spills out from the top, which Mandark eyes warily.

"I came by to borrow your BioGenesis Engine for a bit."

"Why?!"

"So I could give you your New Year's present." Mandark replies.

"New Year's was a month and 10 days ago."

"The solar one, yes. But not the lunar new year." Mandark grins. "Happy New Year, by the way."

"It will be a happy new year when you get this fuchsia feline out of my laboratory! Why on earth would you think I'd ever want this? I'm a DOG person -"

Mandark snickers.

"-you'd better get this wretched cat out of my lab right now, or I'm gonna lose it!"

Mandark holds up a hand. "To clarify, my dear Dexter, the tiger is not your present."

"...It's not?" Dexter asks, a little dumbfounded.

His rival shakes his head. "Of course not. The tiger isn't your zodiac animal."

"Oh," Dexter frowns. "Wait...It's not DeeDee's either."

"...Yeah, but she didn't like the ox." Mandark shrugs.

"They're not as cute!" DeeDee says.

"Speaking of which, I have some good news and bad news..." Mandark gives a sheepish grin. "Which do you want first?"

Oh no. "What did you do?"

"So the bad news is, the ox broke your BioGenesis Engine during its rampage." Mandark says. "Bit of a bull in a China Shop situation."

"For Einstein's sake..." Dexter pinches the bridge of his nose. "And the good news?"

"The good news is, before it broke it, I managed to make both of our zodiac animals!" Mandark beams, taking Dexter by the shoulders and spinning him round. "See?"

Across the room is crimson red goat with burnished gold horns that narrows its eyes at him. It gives a low, menacing bleat and paws the ground with its hoof. It looks like it's ready to charge.

Dread sinks into the pit of Dexter's coffee-less stomach.

"Mandark..." He says slowly. "...Remind me what your zodiac animal is again?"

He's answered by a loud, guttural roar from the back of his laboratory.

#dexter's laboratory #dexter's lab #just a quick drabble #happy lunar new year 2024 #tbh i still dont know what fanon I subscribe to #i think its fun if dexter's a goat but that would make mandark a snake rather than dragon #but the dexdarkers want their dragon so their dragon they shall have

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boots-with-the-fur-club · 1 year ago

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Inverted Confrontation chapter 5!

April stares in shock at the girl who looks so similar that she could be her twin.

“Woah! Is that me!?”

“Yeah, I’m-….Agent 64…?” Other April trails off, staring at Mayhem.

“So cool! You’ve got a secret agent name!?”

“No, he’s….” Tears prick at her eyes but they quickly glance away.

“Never mind. We’ll talk after I get these guys out of this dimension!” She continues, pointing at the villains.

“Give up now, Apricot. You know we can still wipe you all out.” Champion smirks.

“Quit calling me that! You’re wrong this time. We’ve got you outnumbered!” She insists.

“Oh yeah? For how long?”

Her eyes widen.

“Watch out!”

Dr. Rude puts his hands together and they start to glow orange. One hand pulls from the other, producing a chain. It lengthens as he pulls more until he tosses it with great strength and speed.

The group tries to disperse to avoid it but it almost seems alive, going right after them all.

April hits the chain with her bat, but it wraps around and tugs. She digs her heels into the ground to avoid it getting pulled away. Orange starts creeping up the green.

“Let go!” Other April warns.

April begrudgingly does as asked and the chain retracts, bringing the bat to Dr. Rude. It slowly changes fully from green to orange.

“He’s going to do that to all of us if we don’t do something!”

Leo frees Draxum.

“Barry, if you don’t want to die, you’re going to have to help us out here!”

“I could handle them just fine if they didn’t surprise me!” He insists.

“Dr. Rude, it’s time to get Hyde his assistant.” Champion whispers.

Dr. Rude nods in response and falls back into a portal that is clawed open behind him.

Everyone panics about where he’ll show up.

Leo moves closer to Mikey, knowing remembering what the villains had talked about before with Hyde getting his lab assistant.

Another portal opens up which Leo readies his weapon towards. The sound of a third one opening makes him realize too late that it was a diversion.

He turns his head behind him, eyes widening as a chain reaches for Mikey. He can barely scream out a late warning.

Then, the chain suddenly gets grabbed by a vine and Dr. Rude is pulled through, up towards the air.

“Stay away from my son!” Draxum shout.

Mikey’s eyes sparkle at hearing the word son.

Dr. Rude’s eyes fill with hatred.

“Hyde, Red, let’s end this already.” Champion growls.

He opens a lot more portals all around. The exit portals open up on the other side, too many to keep track of. All the villains go through, popping out from random ones.

They all begin to fight. The portals make everything much more chaotic and difficult. The villains use them to pop in and out while everyone else gets pushed or falls into them and land awkwardly out of them.

It gets incredibly tense with the villains not throwing their punches in the slightest. Every single close contact with Dr. Rude is a narrow miss of brainwashing. The original turtles are getting tired while the villains don’t seem to even break a sweat.

Except for Champion who seems to actually be sweating.

Hyde continually spares glances his way that had concern in them.

It starts to become obvious that something is wrong with him.

Donnie glances around at the portals and sees that they’re becoming unstable.

“He’s getting strained!”

Champion grits his teeth, trying not to react outwardly too much.

Raph immediately starts going after him to further weaken his concentration on the portals.

Red attempts to stop this but is himself stopped by Draxum and April.

“You need to just give up! You’re going to get hurt!” Raph hits his mystic fist at Champion.

He isn’t able to recover from it as well as before, stumbling slightly.

“I know exactly what I need to do! I know what my brothers need! And they need him dead!”

“Is that really what they need if they get hurt doing it!?”

Champion looks at his brothers in panic. Dr. Rude’s arms were growing shaky, the mystic orange light in them getting dim as he fights against Donnie and other April.

Hyde was getting overwhelmed by Leo and Mikey breaking every projected weapon of his they could get their hands on.

Champion is so distracted by all of this that he doesn’t dodge a hit that Raph expects him to, leading it to be a much harder one than he’s intended.

The portals all stop at once as he weakly tries to stay standing.

“Leo!” Raph shouts the wrong name out of panicked concern and rushes to catch him before he falls over.

Champion heavily resists falling over or passing out at first, but ultimately ends up in his arms, completely limp.

Dr. Rude’s arms fully stop glowing at seeing his brother go down. He practically screeches in anger before attacking Donnie and other April more brutally. This seemed to be the last of his energy though, because eventually he’s shaking all over in an attempt to keep going.

Donnie picks him up with his robotic arms, he still struggles heavily right up to the moment he just physically can’t anymore. He goes as limp as Champion.

Hyde and Red become incredibly distraught. They both try to get to their brothers but are stopped at every turn.

“Let me through!”

“Not happening you Frankenstein wannabe, you can see your brothers once we’re sure you’re not going to kill anybody!” Leo comes at Hyde again.

Red starts tearing through vines and attempts to barrel through April. He’s taken off guard by Mayhem jumping at and clawing his face.

“Get a portal home open, he’s not lookin good!” Raph shouts.

“On it! You got this Mikey?”

“You know it!”

Leo quickly makes his way to Raph, Donnie, and other April to open up the portal.

Once Red and Hyde notice, something changes with them immediately.

Hyde gets rid of all of his current tech to replace them with robotic enhancements on his arms. They come in the form of extremely sharp blades on either side. His eyes glow completely purple, leaving no room for any semblance of his personality as he slices at Mikey.

Red shares the glowing eyes, his red. He takes Mayhem off his face and flings him at April instead. She’s quick to react and catch him but the force sends her skidding back a bit. Red summons a large copy of himself that slams Draxum and his vines into the concrete.

The sheepman barely avoids anything getting broken thanks to said vines, but Red’s clone relentlessly keeps hitting him.

“We have a situation!!” April screams.

“What’s happening!?” Donnie looks at other April.

“I’ve never seen them do this before! I have no idea!” She responds.

“They’ve gone into a war protocol!” Draxum yells with strain.

“Explain already!” April insists.

“I may or may not have implemented something that would have them react to the strategist and infiltration specialist being taken out! It’s the last line of defense! There’s almost nothing that will stop them!”

“You what!?” The turtles shout.

“We’re talking about that later! What’s the not totally nothing thing then!?”

The door to the roof slams open as Splinter charges forward.

“April! I’m here!”

Hyde and Red turn their attention to him, the color overtaking their eyes fading.

“I-Is that him?” Hyde’s weapons vanish once again.

His body is clearly exhausted, just like what had happened with Champion and Dr. Rude. Despite that he still cautiously approaches Splinter.

“Dad! Be careful!” Leo warns.

Hyde tries to move forward, but drops to his knees. He shakes and tears up, hands on the ground.

“It’s not fair….it’s not fair! Why do they get to have a dad? Why do they get to have two!? What did we do wrong…?”

Splinter frowns and gets close to him despite the previous warning, moving his chin up so he can wipe his tears.

“It’s time to rest.”

Hyde’s body gives out, face planting into Splinter’s shoulder.

Red, who watched the whole thing go down, pushes through his own exhaustion to pull him away from Splinter.

Everyone tries to stop him but he keeps pushing through to collect all his brothers. He sits down on the ground, cradling them protectively before he too passes out.

Raph feels pangs of sympathy in his chest. He’d be doing the same exact thing in this situation. He’d also feel an incredible amount of guilt.

“Can someone explain what’s going on here!?” Splinter looks around at them all.

“It might take a while, let’s do it at home.” Leo suggests.

Everyone agrees since most of them are tired from the fighting. They use the portal he opened before and get the entire gang of villains through it as well. With some help from Donnie, Draxum is able to make some mystic canceling bindings to put around the villains. They’re kept in a room nearby so an eye can be kept on them as the turtles and other April explain what’s going on.

“A world where I wasn’t able to save you….” Splinter frowns deeply.

“You did save us pops, you just….couldn’t save yourself too.” Raph sighs.

“And because of that they took over all of New York!? And I’m leadin the resistance!?” April looks at her other self.

“It’s not all of New York, but yeah, most of it. I’m actually a co-leader. Sunita and Casey help out a lot.”

“Who’s Casey?”

“You don’t know Casey here!? Come on! Intense girl with crazy combat skills? Likes hockey? Shaved head?”

“FOOT RECRUIT!?” Everyone shouts.

“I guess she used to be, do y’all just call her that? You never learned her name?”

“We’re sworn enemies!” April replies.

“And here I thought this world was way better. I couldn’t imagine not being friends with Casey….”

“What about that whole Agent 46 thing?”

Other April sighs heavily.

“We were partners. He was part of the yokai trying to help against the turtles. He worked for their council.”

“Mayhem!? You’re a secret agent!? I’ve been giving you baths!”

Mayhem glances the other way.

April glares at him before coming to a realization.

“Were? Was? Past tense….?”

Other April leans her arms on the kitchen counter, head down slightly as she tears up.

“He’s….gone. They brought down a building on us. H-He was so hurt, but he still got us out. It was just too much and he….” She sniffles and covers her eyes.

There’s a sad silence in the room. Nobody knows exactly what to say to her. Most of them couldn’t imagine not having Mayhem around anymore. They also couldn’t imagine wanting to hurt him.

Mayhem jumps out of April’s arms and onto the counter, rubbing against other April.

She slowly moves her hands away and and pulls him close.

“I miss you so much….I’m sorry….”

April puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. Knowing me, since you kinda are, you did whatever you could to avoid it. Sometimes….things happen and there’s nothing you can do about it. It sucks, but you can’t hold onto that guilt. It’ll eat you alive just for something that wasn’t even your fault.”

Other April takes a breath and smiles softly.

“Giving myself a pep talk, never thought it would be literal.”

They both chuckle.

“Okay, now that that’s taken care of, you need to tell us what you did!” Leo shouts, pointing at Draxum.

“I created you for war, you’re already aware of this.”

“We weren’t aware that we had a kill switch.” Donnie crosses his arms.

“Fine. You were each created with a role in mind. Obviously I never got to fortify here it myself, but they’re there anyways. The blue one is the-“

“Glorious face man?” Leo flips his mask tails like they’re hair.

“-distraction. Red eared sliders, your species, slide off things in nature to escape predators. They sense vibrations, are good climbers, and the bright colors I encoded could keep the enemy’s eyes away from the others.”

Leo’s face drops.

“Then Mikey’s natural speed, strength, small stature, and overall adorableness make him the perfect infiltrator. He and the distraction would then make sense as a natural pairing.”

They two of them look at each other in concern.

“As for the purple and red one, their roles are pretty clear. The tech and data specialist who’s best with defense tactics with machinery to match. The tank and muscle of the group who takes the damage that the others can’t and acts most often as offense.”

Donnie huffs and looks away while Raph seems shocked.

“The so called kill switch would in most cases be when the red one is the last left alive. A final resort to take out the enemy when everyone else has failed.”

“My….savage Raph freak out moments when I’m all alone….it’s because of you?”

“Technically it’s in all of you, like what we saw when half their team was gone. You’re all capable of it, you just more so than the rest.”

Mikey rushes over to Raph and hugs him tightly. Raph hugs him back just as tightly, his eyes looking like a kicked puppy’s.

Everyone else glares at Draxum.

Leo crosses his arms angrily.

“I am so regretting not letting them drop you off a roof.”

Shoutout to @daboyau! The headcanons and ideas about the roles of the turtles as well as the theory about savage Raph came from them! They have great fics which you should check out!!

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phoenixmixturemexico · 5 months ago

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#highspeedisperser

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jcmarchi · 2 years ago

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Conjoined "Racetracks" Make New Optical Device Possible - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/conjoined-racetracks-make-new-optical-device-possible-technology-org/

Conjoined "Racetracks" Make New Optical Device Possible - Technology Org

When we last checked in with Caltech’s Kerry Vahala three years ago, his lab had recently reported the development of a new optical device called a turnkey frequency microcomb that has applications in digital communications, precision timekeeping, spectroscopy, and even astronomy.

An artist’s concept of the frequency microcomb developed by Caltech’s Kerry Vahala and his collaborators. Image credit: Yuan, Bowers, Vahala, et al.

This device, fabricated on a silicon wafer, takes input laser light of one frequency and converts it into an evenly spaced set of many distinct frequencies that form a train of pulses whose length can be as short as 100 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second). (The comb in the name comes from the frequencies spaced like a hair comb’s teeth.)

Now Vahala (BS ’80, MS ’81, PhD ’85), Caltech’s Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Applied Physics and executive officer for applied physics and materials science, along with members of his research group and the group of John Bowers at UC Santa Barbara, have made a breakthrough in the way the short pulses form in an important new material called ultra-low-loss silicon nitride (ULL nitride), a compound formed of silicon and nitrogen.

The silicon nitride is prepared to be extremely pure and deposited in a thin film.

Cars bunch up in traffic as they try to merge. A similar phenomenon occurs in the optical tracks developed by Kerry Vahala and fellow researchers. This bunching up is key to their device’s operation. Credit: Oregon Department of Transportation

In principle, short-pulse microcomb devices made from this material would require very low power to operate. Unfortunately, short light pulses (called solitons) cannot be properly generated in this material because of a property called dispersion, which causes light or other electromagnetic waves to travel at different speeds, depending on their frequency.

ULL has what is known as normal dispersion, and this prevents waveguides made of ULL nitride from supporting the short pulses necessary for microcomb operation.

In a paper appearing in Nature Photonics, the researchers discuss their development of the new microcomb, which overcomes the inherent optical limitations of ULL nitride by generating pulses in pairs. This is a significant development because ULL nitride is created with the same technology used for manufacturing computer chips.

This kind of manufacturing technique means that these microcombs could one day be integrated into a wide variety of handheld devices similar in form to smartphones.

The most distinctive feature of an ordinary microcomb is a small optical loop that looks a bit like a tiny racetrack. During operation, the solitons automatically form and circulate around it.

“However, when this loop is made of ULL nitride, the dispersion destabilizes the soliton pulses,” says co-author Zhiquan Yuan (MS ’21), a graduate student in applied physics.

An artist’s concept of the frequency microcomb developed by Caltech’s Kerry Vahala and his collaborators. Image credit: Yuan, Bowers, Vahala, et al.

Imagine the loop as a racetrack with cars. If some cars travel faster and some travel slower, then they will spread out as they circle the track instead of staying as a tight pack. Similarly, the normal dispersion of ULL means light pulses spread out in the microcomb waveguides, and the microcomb ceases to work.

The solution devised by the team was to create multiple racetracks, pairing them up so they look a bit like a figure eight. In the middle of that ‘8,’ the two tracks run parallel to each other with only a tiny gap between.

If we continue with the racetrack analogy, this would be like two tracks sharing one straightaway. As the cars from each track converge on that shared section, they encounter something like a traffic jam.

Just like two lanes of traffic merging into one on a freeway forces cars to slow down, the conjoined section of the two microcombs forces the paired laser pulses to bunch up. This bunching up counteracts the pulses’ tendency to spread out and allows the microcombs to work properly.

In this animated gif, optical pulses (solitons) can be seen circling through conjoined optical tracks. Image Credit: Yuan, Bowers, Vahala, et al.

“In effect, this counteracts the normal dispersion and gives the overall composite system the equivalent of anomalous dispersion,” says graduate student and co-author Maodong Gao (MS ’22).

The idea extends when one adds even more racetracks, and the team has shown how three racetracks will also operate by creating two sets of pulse pairs. Vahala believes the phenomenon will continue to work even with many coupled racetracks (microcombs), thereby offering a way to create large photonic circuit arrays for the soliton pulses.

The new microcomb devices, which work as pairs of conjoined optical tracks, also work when larger numbers are combined. Image Credit: Yuan, Bowers, Vahala, et al.

As noted above, these ULL microcombs are fabricated with the same equipment used to make computer chips based on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

Bowers, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, collaborated on the research and notes that “The manufacturing scalability of the CMOS process means that it will now be easier and more economical to manufacture the short-pulse microcombs and integrate them into existing technologies and applications.”

Concerning these applications, Vahala says “a comb is like a Swiss army knife for optics. It has many different functions, and that’s why it’s such a powerful tool.”

Written by Emily Velasco

Source: Caltech

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

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cochidinh · 5 months ago

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under the assumption sunlight just kills defects, the best way to test it when you're in a rush is to just awaken them all into the sunlight at once!

THIS! I love it

at first, my headcanon was in previous experiments (before Huesca decided to speed the project up), the homunculi would stillbirth (in the pod), or did develop but ended up failing. but yeah your headcanon is better Huesca said that he urgently needed a homunculus, just one successful specimen, so if homunculi died at the same time this round, it would shorten the time to know whether to continue the project or not (my other headcanon is somehow he knew the formula to create a successful homunculus, may be transmitted outside UG lab by someone selling their info, still, the formula he received was flawed and he didn't realize it. If he thought he had a "99,9%" success formula, instead of focusing on fixing the existing error, he would just increase the number of specimens to increase the chance of a successful specimen appearing)

he'd swim along the Kamasaki riverbank, dragging unsuspecting victims underwater to kill and eat them. Servan died in this way, running towards the river to escape other homunculi, only to find himself cornered when he reached the water. Icardi then took hold of him while he was still paralyzed with fear, sealing his fate

Me look at Servan and his trauma of drowning from the past. damn.

also I like Homunculi that have special abilities, it's like when I played fps game and the map suddenly spawned zombies with high-speed abilities besides the normal one (I died, sucks)

they're taken into a special UG facility that houses all of the survivors. they think they'll finally be free from this hell they endured. a UG agent comes into the shelter to invite small groups into another room. they're told that they'll have to fill out some paperwork. these survivors have no reason to distrust them, so they follow these orders.

my friend once told me about a historical event (I won't mention it here), but I will say a little more about this headcanon

the most terrible thing is that when the survivors leave, they will tell other shelters. There will always be people who want to save others, and when there is a chance, they will spread the news further. "Hey I heard that those cars are gathering survivors to help" "They are helping us" "Someone injured? they have doctors" "Are you hungry? I heard they provide water and food enough for us"

Word of mouth, especially if it is from someone you trust, and if many people trust it, it will become "true".

those vehicles do not need to go to every corner of Kanai Ward, people will start to go looking for them.

And you are right, when they enter the house of survivors, they will be dispersed into small groups, go into separate rooms, and die, in the hope they're gonna be saved, in believe they are saved, because they did nothing wrong, If those people wanted to harm them, they wouldn't have saved them.

Blank Week Headcanon Time!!

(extremely big rain code spoilers lol)

so the thing about the blank week is that i think it's a really compelling twist and it's genuinely interesting to think about. but also, one problem is that thinking about it too much raises a lot of questions.

like, how were there no survivors? did no one in kanai ward fight back? how did it take only a week for amaterasu to make homunculi of everyone in the city, for those same homunculi to break out and wipe out everyone, and for makoto to clean it up and make the rain machine? what about nighttime, or whenever people were indoors? wouldn't the homunculi have calmed down?

so i came up with a few headcanons that answer these questions bc it's fun to come up with watsonian answers to doyalist problems! yippee!

So:

How'd all this research happen within a week? i dont think it actually did happen in a week. amaterasu probably already had the massive amount of homunculus birthing pods in place before extracting blood from everyone in kanai ward. i mean, homunculus research started 10 years ago, and the first successful one was made by the UG 3 years ago. this means they likely already had all of their equipment, but they were missing something to create successful specimens.

Why did the scientists just birth all the homunculi at once in the sun? Are they stupid? the homunculi they were creating were simply dying in the sunlight instead of going full on sicko mode. under the assumption sunlight just kills defects, the best way to test it when you're in a rush is to just awaken them all into the sunlight at once! perhaps the researchers assumed all the defects would do the same, leaving behind any successful specimens who would just... act like normal people. under this assumption, the research team wouldn't be in any danger. of course, making assumptions rarely ends well.

Why did the zombified homunculi instantly become aggressive in the sun, but Kurumi just passed out? while not explicitly canon, i think... defective homunculus bodies have a few stages they undergo when reacting to sunlight. the first stage is a loss of consciousness, like we see with kurumi. if their consciousness is already compromised (i.e. having little to no brain capacity), such as with zombified homunculi, this stage is skipped. the next stage is pure aggression and bloodlust, as seen with what happened during the blank week. the stage after extremely prolonged exposure is, of course, death. my headcanon is that it takes about a month of natural sunlight exposure to kill a defective homunculus, but direct UV light exposure such as a tanning bed would accelerate the process, sadly.

How did everyone in the city get wiped out within just a week? remember the huge shutter that apparently the hoard of homunculi just... tore right through in order to escape the lab? my headcanon is that, in their sunlight-berserk state, homunculi gain super strength and speed, pushing their bodies past the limit. this can cause strain on them that backfires when they regain consciousness, but feeding on human flesh heals this problem quickly, since it encourages their artificial regeneration. thanks to these superhuman abilities, most humans struggled to fight back. still, some homunculi did perish from humans defending themselves over the week, and those were among the first homunculi to be dumped off in the restricted area when makoto came to clean the place up. they were then considered "missing," just like kurumi's grandpa.

What about nighttime during the Blank Week? What about people who were indoors? the doyalist part of me wants to say the writers never even considered that, but the watsonian explanation is still based on real world logic: the moon does not produce its own unique light. it reflects the light of the sun. bc of that, kanai ward was certainly no safer at night as long as the moon was out. i also believe it takes a while for homunculi to calm down when under cover, such as when they're indoors with no direct sunlight. this is so their bodies can get the UV poisoning out of their system first. maybe it takes a few hours, so people who thought they were safe indoors ended up still getting mauled. eventually, being under cover from sunlight will knock a feral homunculus unconscious (since after the blank week, everyone is described by kurumi as "waking up to it being a week later"). and again, if they are already zombified, this step is skipped in favor of them just calming down like the ones in the restricted area.

How did Makoto just... clean up all that and build the rain machine in a week? well, we are in a futuristic cyberpunk type game. when makoto arrived, he probably just had machines work on the mass cleanup job for him while he was busy building his rain machine. though, homunculi devour basically everything, so corpse cleanup likely wasn't wasn't too difficult. hell, a lot of the blood outside can be washed away from the rain. also, kurumi does describe kanai ward as looking like a tornado ran through it when she woke up, so the clean up was likely not as thorough as we think. what's the problem with seeing a little blood amidst some rubble? it only adds to the mystery of it all. as for how makoto built the machine so quickly... he's the world's greatest mind so he can do what he wants <3

No survivors? At all? Seriously? Not a single human lived through the Blank Week? i actually think some humans did survive the blank week. but, i don't believe any of them made it out of the situation alive. doesn't make sense? well, let me lay out a scenario for you: it's been almost a week since the feral homunculi have been rampaging throughout the city. a small group of survivors quietly huddle together inside a building. they've run out of food and water, and now they're just counting down the hours before their inevitable demise. but then! the sounds of pouring rain begin, and after some time, the guy on lookout witnesses all of the homunculi simultaneously passing out on the streets. soon after, UG brand rescue vehicles and machines come rolling into the city. the group rejoices. they're saved! they're taken into a special UG facility that houses all of the survivors. they think they'll finally be free from this hell they endured. a UG agent comes into the shelter to invite small groups into another room. they're told that they'll have to fill out some paperwork. these survivors have no reason to distrust them, so they follow these orders. and one by one, each and every group is quietly executed, forever silenced for what they know. it's a real shame, but makoto tells himself it's important for the homunculi to survive. he has to eliminate any and all chances for kanai ward's secrets to become public. the UG would not have cooperated otherwise... As a bonus, here's some other headcanons I have about the deaths that happened during the blank week:

my headcanon for a lot of homunculi is that they instinctively tried to reach places familiar to them whilst in their berserk state- their work, their homes, their schools, etc., all following a routine that's pretty well ingrained into them. this led to a lot of poetic and ironic deaths, and many people getting killed by their own homunculi or by the homunculi of people they know and love. just to add to the angst of it all 😊 with that in mind...

kurumi was the one to kill and eat her grandpa, following the path she usually takes walking home. i dont know if homunculus kurumi ever figures this out in the future and is devastated, or if she spends years trying to search for a missing family member who she'd already unknowingly killed. i dont know which one is sadder.

martina, among several other peacekeepers, died thanks to yomi shoving them into hoards of hungry homunculi to save his own ass. yomi eventually died while trying to escape to the sewers, ironically devoured by yakou's homunculus

dominic was one of the biggest defenders on the human front, the only person with the raw strength to fend off against large hoards. however, dominic's homculus had the highest kill count for the exact same reasons, so they ended up fighting each other, and homunculus dominic prevailed. this basically marked the moment of lost hope amongst the last humans in kanai ward

(on this note, ive got an oddly cute but still fucked up headcanon that, because dominic was such a successful hunter, he would share his "food" with lots of smaller homunculi, including guillaume)

this isnt my headcanon (it's loremaster's) but im really attached to the idea that yakou died while trying to protect kurumi. it just feels right. before the blank week, he'd already failed to protect his wife, so to him the best way to go out was to die trying to save someone else... though, unfortunately, kurumi did not survive long after him

icardi's homunculus hunted in a very unique way. he'd swim along the kamasaki riverbank, dragging unsuspecting victims underwater to kill and eat them. servan died in this way, running towards the river to escape other homunculi, only to find himself cornered when he reached the water. icardi then took hold of him while he was still paralyzed with fear, sealing his fate

iruka managed to defend herself with her guns, but couldn't bring herself to shoot shachi's homunculus, leading to her death

the ch 1 church crew perished at the hands of their own homunculi, but the priest himself was devored upon the altar. for the raw imagery of it all. do you see the vision.

aaaand that's all my silly little thoughts about the blank week! it's such an insane plot twist and honestly i would love to see more fans talking abt it because it feels like such prime material for angst...

#rain code spoilers

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spideyobsessed · 3 years ago

Text

Fly For Me || p.p.

peter parker x reader

Synopsis: Bad luck always seems to find its way to you… until you meet your good luck charm.

It all started the day you were born. Seriously. You were born October 13th on a Friday. You’re not sure why you were dealt these cards. Maybe your mom walked underneath a ladder with an upside horseshoe in her hand and then immediately broke a mirror when she was pregnant with you.

Either way, bad luck has you in a chokehold, no matter how many superstitions you vowed to avoid. Find a penny face down? Leave it be. Need to look in the mirror? Just making sure you aren’t in breaking distance. No umbrellas, no ladders, no cracks in the sidewalk.

You avoided it all, but sour luck was your best friend. Whether you liked it or not.

You’re 12 years old, the ripe old age of awkward preteen, and you’re at your first coed party. Awkward might actually be an understatement here. You and your friends did what you thought all kids did at parties based off of movies. You had a dance party, watched scary movies, and played spin the bottle.

You’ve never kissed anyone before. You’ve never even been alone in a room with a boy until today. “Y/n, it’s your turn!” One of your friends giggled.

You wipe your sweaty palms on your pants before giving the empty coke bottle a good spin. You’re almost sure the sound of your pounding heart is loud enough for the person next to you to hear. The bottle spins for an eternity until finally it lands on—

“Germy! I mean, Jeremy.” Another little girl giggles as the nose of the bottle lands on Jeremy Welch, the boy with year round allergies.

He was actually a pretty cool dude once you get past the constant snot running from his nose. You watch him obnoxiously wipe his reddened nose with his sleeve, trying so hard not to make a rude face. “Ready?” He asks with another sniffle.

“Ready.” You squeak.

Reluctantly, you crawl over to his spot. You slowly lean in with your lips already puckered. ‘Please don’t sneeze. Please don’t sneeze. Please don’t sneeze.’ You think to yourself. Your lips practically hover over his and all you have to do is connect them. At the speed of light, you peck him on the lips, feeling accomplished for finally getting your first kiss over with. Just as you were about to celebrate, “ACHOO!”

Your muscles completely stiffen as you feel a spray of liquid cover your entire face. You hear a chorus of “Ew!”s and loud screams as the circle of children surrounding you quickly disperse.

“I’m sorry!” Jeremy exclaims.

You remain in the same position, frozen, eyes still closed and your mouth parted… unfortunately. “I-It’s okay.” You insist when in reality you were holding back the most horrendous gag.

You decided coed parties aren’t all that great after this.

….

Freshmen year of high school. You’re 14 years old. You weren’t too unlucky this year, aside from the occasion slipping in the hallway or missing the bus. You can barely contain your excitement as your science teacher explains how to conduct the experiment in front of you. Science is your favorite subject, and you always enjoy lab days.

“Make sure you only pour 50 mL into the beaker. Any less won’t show results and any more will be a problem.” The teacher explains loudly before allowing the students to begin their experiment.

Your lab partner, Gwen, paid little to no attention during class, but you didn’t mind doing most of the work. She sits there with her head resting on the desk while fiddling with the bunsen burner.

“Can you not do that?” You ask her. “I don’t think these chemicals should be around an open flame.”

She rolls her eyes before turning her attention to you. “Take a chill pill, teacher’s pet. You really think they give us real chemicals?”

“Uh yeah. That’s why we have lab coats and goggles on.” You point out as if it weren’t obvious enough.

Gwen scoffs, “Whatever.”

She goes back to the same position, continuing to flick the burner on and off. You let out a defeated huff as you try to ignore her. Once you’ve gotten the measurements correct, you’re ready to pour the chemicals into the beaker for a final result. The liquid inside the beaker is supposed to change states of matter and shoot colorful bubbles into the air.

You smile to yourself as you stand up to reassure you pour the perfect amount. As your arm goes up to begin pouring, Gwen happened to flip the burner on and the sleeve of your lab coat catches fire. You noticed the heat immediately and panicked.

You let out a scream while you accidentally pour all of the chemicals into the beaker rather than the 50 mL like you were supposed to. A giant explosion of bubbles burst from your beaker, but you’re still more concerned about literally being on fire. You shake your arm wildly as you back away from your desk. In doing so, you bump into another student and they also pour too much into their beaker. This somehow starts a chain reaction. One by one, each student’s experiment explodes with a mess of uncontrollable bubbles. No one, except for the teacher, is upset by it. This result was way cooler than what was originally planned.

You and Gwen ended up in detention for being unsafe and a disturbance to the class. You weren’t completely out of luck that day though— you ended up with a best friend.

….

“Right there! I saw another shooting star.” One of your friends shout as they point at the night sky. It was clearer than usual tonight.

It’s currently the last day of summer break, and tomorrow is your first day of junior year. You turn 17 in 2 months.

You’re sprawled out in a grassy field with Gwen and a few of your mutual friends. Stargazing has become a hobby for you this summer, although you can never make out any constellations. The stars are still pretty to look at. Your friends “ooh” and “ahh” as they take turns pointing out constellations they recognize. You kept quiet off to the side, knowing there was no point in even trying. You just can’t make out the shapes and you always miss shooting stars by seconds.

Gwen nudges your shoulder, pulling you out of your deep thoughts. “What’s wrong?” She asks.

“Nothing’s wrong.” You shrug.

She props herself up on her elbow to get a better look at your face, “You’re lying. You’re being all sad and sulky.”

“I am not sad and sulky.” You chuckle, sitting up to gather your things. “But I am gonna go. It’s getting late.”

She frowns, “No, it’s so nice out! You can leave whenever you finally catch a shooting star.”

You laugh again, “I’d be here all night. Shooting stars never fly for me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You say goodnight to all of your friends as you begin your walk back home. You didn’t want to say anything, but you’re really worried. The first day of school never goes well for you, something always has to go wrong. Like on the first day of 7th grade when the electricity went out at your house while you were straightening your hair. You had to go your entire first day of school with only half of your hair done.

As you walk up the steps to your house, you take one more look at the night sky. You pause for a few seconds, hoping that maybe you’ll see your first shooting star. You look and look, but nothing. You choose to close your eyes and make a wish anyway.

“Please give me a break this year.” You beg the universe before entering your dimly lit home.

….

The next morning, you woke up surprisingly refreshed. You were able to go through your entire morning routine without a single problem. Everything ran smoothly, which you find odd, but you aren’t going to complain.

You walk through the halls with Gwen and the same group of people from last night, showing one another your schedules to see which classes you have together.

“Y/n, you have gym with us?” One of the girls ask.

You nod your head excitedly, “Yes! I’m gonna try out for the volleyball team this year, remember?”

All of them except Gwen trade skeptical looks with each other. A smile cracks on one of their faces, “We thought you were joking.”

“Um no.” You chuckle, feeling a little less confident, “I really want to give it a try this year.”

Again, they all go silent and trade looks with each other as you all continue walking. “No offense, Y/n, but we don’t think that’s the best idea.”

“Are you serious, guys? Come on.” Gwen pinches the bridge of her nose. You look at her confused, but all she does is shake her head in annoyance.

“Is there something I don’t know about?” You ask out loud.

One of the girls sighs before stopping in her tracks, causing the rest of you to stop as well. “We don’t want you joining the team because everyone knows you’re bad luck.” She tells you straight up.

You’re a little taken aback, and quite frankly, hurt by her bluntness. Sure bad things happen to you more than most, but for someone to call you the bad luck stings. Regardless, you try to laugh it off.

“I-I am not bad luck!” You chuckle, hoping the louder you talked, the more believable you’d sound.

Another one of them speaks up, “Y/n, the first day we met I had to go to the hospital.”

“How is you having a peanut allergy my fault?!”

“You broke my EpiPen!”

You open your mouth to argue back until you realize she was right. You had forgotten about that incident.

“Ugh whatever. I’m gonna prove you guys wrong.” You declare as you begin walking away from them backwards.

“Be careful.” Gwen warns, but you ignore her.

You continue, “I’m trying out for the volleyball team and I’m gonna make it!”

She steps towards you cautiously, “Y/n-”

“No, Gwen! I’m serious. I’m gonna join the team and we’re gonna be national fucking champions all because of—” Your rant is cut short by a sudden drop in your stomach.

You hadn’t realized it, but you started walking backwards right towards a staircase. That’s what Gwen was trying to save you from. She launches herself forward to grab your hand, but barely misses. You squeeze your eyes shut and prepare for the worst. You expect your body to go tumbling down the several steps below you, but instead you feel a pair of strong arms wrap around your waist. You gasp and stumble a bit as you try to regain your balance. The person who caught you keeps their arms around you until your feet are firm on the ground.

When you look up, you’re met with the most delicate pair of brown eyes. His hair is nearly combed down, but the curls near the nape of his neck managed to escape. The boy’s eyebrows are knitted with concern and you’re reminded that he literally just saved you from falling to your death.

“You gotta be careful. There’s stairs here.” He says. His voice is sweet and gentle, and it matches the way he looks perfectly. You instantly grow nervous and all you can do it smile like an embarrassed idiot.

“Yeah. Right. I should pay more attention.” You chuckle, “Good thing you were there though. Um, thank you.”

Just when you thought this guy couldn’t get any cuter, he smiles. You swear your heart grew wings and flew away in that moment. Gwen still stands there, smirking at the way his eyes wander up and down your body.

“The pleasure’s all mine.” He says suavely, “I’m Peter.”

Of course he has the most perfect name too. You outstretch a hand and he happily takes it, “Y/n.” You introduce yourself.

“Well I hope to see you around, Y/n.” Peter smiles again and then continues his trek to class.

He leaves you absolutely speechless. You look over at Gwen in disbelief before squealing enthusiastically. She pulls you into a tight hug and jokes, “Fuck volleyball. Serve me a piece of Peter.”

You laugh at your friend’s dirty joke and decide it’s time for you to also head to your next class. You tried your best to pay attention during your remaining classes, but Peter never stopped running through your mind. The feeling of having his arms wrapped around you is something you find yourself beginning to crave.

The last bell of the day rings and the tension in your muscles melts away. You’ve nearly made it through the first day of school without staining your clothes, catching on fire, or embarrassing yourself for the thousandth time.

You practically skip to the front doors, a certain boy still lingering through your mind. All day long you’ve been questioning how you’ve never seen him before. He surely has a face you would never forget. You haven’t seen him since he saved you by the staircase and as much as you hate to admit it, that bummed you out. Midtown High is a pretty big school, so what if you never cross paths again?

Once again, you’re so lost in your own thoughts that you don’t notice the big sign on the door telling you not to use it. Unbeknown to you, on the other side of the door is a maintenance man touching up the paint outside of the school. He’s at the very top of a tall ladder with a bucket of paint perfectly balanced on the ajar door— the one you stupidly push open with all your might.

It all happens in a matter of seconds. The man fumbles desperately, trying not to fall backwards on the ladder while the bucket of white paint tips over right in your direction. However, before you can even process what’s about to happen, you feel something sticky on your arm and then a strong force yanks you to the side. You gasp in shock as you land in a familiar pair of arms and watch as the paint splatters where you stood just seconds ago. Once you look up, you see none other than Peter.

“We gotta stop meeting like this, Y/n.”

“Uh yeah, yeah we do.” You stammer. The sound of your name rolling off of his tongue sends chills throughout your body.

He loosens his hold on you, but keeps a hand on your back. “Are you okay? I didn’t pull you too hard, did I?” Peter asks you.

“No, but now that I think about it, how did you do that? You must’ve been standing about 4 feet away from me.”

He blinks as his mind goes blank, “Uh, I’m just really fast.”

You snort, “I feel sorry for your girlfriend.”

Peter drops his jaw and let’s out a surprised chuckle. “Okay 1. I don’t have a girlfriend and 2… no comment.”

You smile and laugh along with Peter as he is now the one blushing like a fool. The two of you easily fell into a conversation, almost like you’ve known each other for years. After bantering back and forth for a few more minutes, Peter strongly recommends that he should walk you home.

“Just for safety reasons! You always seem to be a hair away from trouble.” He points out.

“You’re not wrong. I guess I’ll let you walk me home. Just this once.”

Peter finds himself walking you home everyday after school and texting you all day on the weekends. You both clicked immediately and the more you learned about him, the more you began to fall for him. The constant talking goes on for weeks and you couldn’t help but notice that your bad luck has seemingly washed away. Something would come so close to going bad, but Peter was always there to save the day.

It’s like he’s your shield— the only thing that could protect from the punishments of the cruel world. Peter is your smart, dorky, kind shield. You’re worried that the universe is finally giving you a good thing, just to snatch it out of your grasp when you get too comfortable. Losing him would be the ultimate form of bad luck, and that terrifies you.

“Hold on. Your shoe’s untied.” Peter stops you. He bends down on one knee and begins to tie your shoe in the middle of the hallway, “I don’t want you to fall.” He smiles sheepishly.

You reciprocate the smile and thank him shyly. Walking you home everyday soon turned into walking you to class every period. You’re amazed by how he can manage to pick you up from one class, drop you off at another, and still get to his class on time. It’s like he’s superhuman. No one has ever tried this hard for you. You’re used to people avoiding you like you’re a black cat, but not Peter.

Your hands continuously bump one another’s as you walk side by side like they always do, but this time Peter confidently intertwines them. You don’t even bother trying to hide the heat burning on your face for once. You give him a squeeze and happily lean into him.

Soon, you arrive to your classroom and it’s time to say bye to Peter— for the next hour at least. You turn to face him, still hand in hand, and both of you look at each other like lovesick puppies.

“So I was thinking about having lunch off campus tomorrow. Care to join me?” You offer.

His smile falters and his shoulders drop, “I forgot to tell you. I have a decathlon competition tomorrow and I won’t be at school all day.”

“Oh.” You frown, “I forgot I’m with a genius.”

Peter raises his eyebrows at the sound of those words coming from your mouth. It takes a little bit longer for you to register what you just said, and you immediately slap your hand over your mouth.

“What do you mean by ‘with’, huh?” Peter laughs incredulously.

Your face burns and you want to sink into the floor forever. It’s clear that you and Peter both like each other, but you didn’t want to be the first one to actually acknowledge it.

“N-Nothing. I meant that I’m, like, well… Shut up, Peter.” You shove his shoulder lightheartedly as you try to push past him to walk into your class.

“Hey I’m kidding, I’m kidding. C’mon.” Peter gently grabs your shoulders and makes you look at him, an amused expression still on his face. “I’m glad you said it first. It’s an honor to be with the prettiest girl in school.”

He nudges your chin before closing the gap between your chests. Your faces inch closer and closer together, and you can feel your heart starting to race. You can’t help the smile tugging at the corner of your mouth, “So, does this mean we’re… ya know?”

Peter chuckles lightly, “Yeah we’re.. “ya know”. And I want to kiss my “you know what” now, if that’s alright.”

You don’t trust yourself to not squeal with excitement, so you nod your head eagerly instead. He brushes his thumb gingerly over your cheek and stares into your eyes with his pupils dilated. Peter smiles before finally beginning to slowly lean in.

“Heads up!” A husky voice bellows, but you’re so caught up in the moment you can barely hear it.

Luckily though, Peter was able to quickly pull his mind from the drunken, lovesick state. Without ever taking his eyes off of you, he reaches up with one hand to catch a football that was flying directly towards your head. Your eyes widen when you see how close you were to a mild concussion.

Once again, Peter (quite literally) singlehandedly saves you from total embarrassment and a ridiculous injury. You break out with an impressed grin, “How did—”

Before you could press him for an explanation, he wraps his arm around the small of your back and pulls you in for a kiss. You relax into him, but you didn’t feel a spark like every cheesy romance novel describes. There’s no electricity, no fireworks ignite. Instead, it feels like everything in the universe is perfectly aligned. For once. You think to yourself, ‘This must be what it feels like to be a shooting star.’

The kiss was passionate, but short. Surprised by his own sudden bravery, Peter pulls away with rosy cheeks and the lingering taste of your coconut flavored chapstick. He looks at you as if you’re the reason the sun rises. “Wow.” He mutters under his breath, but you can still hear him.

“Wow.” You reiterate.

“Wow.” A third, disembodied voice coos, “Young love at its finest. Can I have my ball back?”

One of your school’s football players stands there, having witness the kiss. You didn’t even realize Peter still had the ball palmed in his hand.

“Oh yeah. Sorry.” He mumbles as he returns it.

“No problem, bro.” The football player tucks the ball under one arm while hooking the other one around the back Peter’s neck and walking away from you, “So, have you ever thought about joining the team?”

Peter looks back at you with an apologetic smile as you laugh, “I’ll see you after class!”

After a torturous 60 minutes pass, you’re greeted outside of your classroom by the curly haired boy as promised. You go on about your day being more affectionate than usual. Lunch may or may not have been spent making out underneath the bleachers in the gym.

It was the best day you’ve had in a long time, unfortunately, followed by the worst. First thing in the morning, you overslept and ended up late to first period. You tried not to let it get to you because it was only one little hiccup. But one hiccup turned into two, which turned into three, and so on and so on.

It was like every little thing, every corner you turned, something bad was waiting to happen. This is the first day you haven’t seen Peter since you first met, and it’s like all the bad luck he was preventing bubbled up for too long. Now it’s all unleashing on you, all at once.

You fell in the hallway, accidentally wore different shoes on each foot, got your hair stuck in your locker, forgot your homework at home, and dropped your phone in the toilet. This was all during the first two hours at school. After someone spilled iced coffee on your favorite white shirt during lunch, you couldn’t take it anymore and decided skip the rest of the school day. The universe showed no mercy at this point, however. On your walk home, you got attacked by a bird and chased by a small dog for rest way.

Frustrated tears welled up in your eyes as soon as you made it through your front door. You slug through your house, trying to carefully make it to your room. You decided you’re just going to lay down for the rest of the night. Nothing bad can happen if you stay in bed. Or so you thought. The universe has one last “fuck you” up its sleeve. When you finally make it to your room, you almost immediately stub your toe on the leg of your desk.

A loud yelp escapes your lips as you crumble to the ground. You actually just end up staying there, afraid of something else happening like the ceiling collapsing right on top of you when you get into bed. The worst part of this is that you can’t even text Peter, let alone hear his voice because of your phone. He’s really all you need or want right now. You curl up in a ball on the floor as your heart aches with sadness. Your eyes flutter shut and you hope that when you wake up, it’ll be the next day so you can see Peter again.

Hours go by and the sun is now set. The only source of light in your room comes from the full moon shining through your open curtains. You’re brought out of your sleep by the sound of low growling.

“I better be dreaming, I swear to god.” You mutter sleepily.

As your eyes open up, you see the tiny dog that chased you for 3 blocks sitting in the doorway of your room. Your soul jumps out of your body as you sit up and scramble backwards towards your bed.

“Oh, you’re up now! I would’ve told you to get in bed, but you looked so peaceful.” Your mom appears and casually picks up the demon dog.

“Did you mean to let that thing inside? I can call animal control for you.” You spit.

Your mom lets out a hearty laugh and continues to cradle the dog, who is now the perfect angel, in her arms. “No, silly. This poor thing was sitting outside. She doesn’t have a collar or anything, so I think I might keep her.”

“Perfect.” You groan, pulling yourself into bed.

“But I’m assuming you won’t be calling anyone any time soon.” She says.

You look at her in confusion before she pulls out a ziplock bag filled with rice and your wet phone. You spring out of bed, having forgotten all about taking care of your phone until now. Your mom explains that she put it in the bag hours ago, but there’s a chance it was a little too late.

With a sigh, you thank her anyway and shove the bag into your back pocket. “Where are you going?” She asks when you begin to walk to the front door.

You throw on a jacket and zip it up, still wearing your coffee stained shirt. “Down the street to Delmar’s. I’m hungry.” You explain.

“I don’t want you going alone, sweetie. It’s dark out. Is that nice Pablo boy going with you?” She asks.

“Yeah, mom. I’m meeting Pablo there.” You give her a weak smile as you step out the door. You feel bad for lying to her, but today was too much for you. A short walk might help take things off of your mind.

You tuck your hands in the pockets of your jacket as you stroll down the sidewalk absentmindedly. You’ve never been one to throw a pity party, but tonight is an exception. Tonight you’re going to let yourself be pissed at the world all because of some spilt coffee and a stubbed toe. What was originally supposed to be a walk around the block turned into a walk in the dangerous part of your neighborhood. Nothing too crazy, just the usual battery and robbery.

By the time you realized where you were, it was too late to turn back. It was safer to stare straight ahead and walk faster until you get to a better part of the neighborhood. You start to get the unsettling feeling that someone was tailing you, but when you look back, you’re completely alone. Your stomach twist with anxiety as you walk even faster now. The sound of your heartbeat pounds in your own ears and you begin to sweat. At this point, you don’t even know your way back home.

You go to quickly turn a random corner when you see the figure of a man stomping right towards you. “Hey! Have you seen my dog?”

You’re too scared to even process what he asked you. In a poor attempt at escaping what you thought was potential danger, you try running across the street. However, your stupid shoelaces were untied. You smack on to the gravelly road and groan in pain. You just want to give up and lie there exactly like you did in your room. Still, you power through your misfortune and sluggishly push yourself up to your feet.

Just as an exasperated sigh leaves your lips, you noticed two growing lights rapidly heading right in your direction. You freeze like a deer, and per usual, all you can do is close your eyes while you prepare for the impact. Thankfully, the only collision you feel is a strong chest and an even stronger arm wrap around your body. You shriek as your feet are lifted off the ground and wild wind begins blowing through your already messy hair. Just as fast as it happened, you’re being set down on the cold floor.

You open your panicked eyes and see—

“Spider-man?”

“Y/n, are- I mean, uh…” He suddenly forces his voice to go deeper, “Random citizen, who I don’t know, are you okay?”

You want to be excited that you’re meeting the famous neighborhood hero. Not only meeting him, he just saved your life! But you’ve finally reached your limits. In the blink of an eye, tears begin to slip down your face as your body racks with heavy sobs. “I’m not. I’m not okay.” You cry, falling to your knees.

“Hey, hey, hey. Don’t cry.” He tries to sooth you.

You cover your face with your hands and continue to wail, “Today was the worst day of my life. I almost died! My shoes didn’t match today. The dog is evil. My shirt is ruined.”

You cry and cry, but it’s not making any sense to Peter. All he can think of to do is give you comforting pats on your knee.

“I just want today to be over.” You sniffle, “I just want to see m-my boyfriend.”

This, he understood. He can actually do something about this. “Y/n, Y/n. Look at me.” Peter urges.

He mindfully pulls your hands away from your face and wipes your tears with his gloved hands. Your eyes flutter open, the wet lashes making them feel hooded. Once you’re finally face to face with Peter, he slips the mask off of his head to reveal his biggest secret. Your breathing halts and your eyes go wide, but not because of the secret. You had this reaction simply because it was Peter stood before you.

“I’m sorry I was following you, but you haven’t answered your phone all day. I-” Peter begins but is interrupted.

You waste no time engulfing him in a hug. It finally feels like you can breathe again. You cry a bit more while you melt into his arms. “I missed you so much, Pete. I had a horrible day.”

He hugs you even tighter and kisses the top of your head. “Tell me all about it, love.”

And you do. You break down every last detail of the day to him, and he listens carefully to all of it. After venting to Peter about today’s events, you already felt 100 times better. The two of your even got a good laugh when you showed him your rice covered phone. You pull it out of the ziplock bag and repeatedly pressed the power button, but to no avail. Peter noticed your frown when your phone didn’t come on.

“Can I see it?” He sticks out his hand.

Without thinking twice about it, you give him your phone. After a few seconds of blowing air into the charging port and holding down a few buttons, the bright white screen activates. Your eyes light up just as bright, making Peter chuckle.

“You’re literally amazing.” You gush as you take back your phone, happily going through it to see what all you missed today.

There’s a few Instagram notifications, a couple of emails, messages from Gwen and your mom, but what catches your eye is a photo from Peter. He sent you a goofy selfie of him in his decathlon uniform, posing with a trophy. You smile softly as he peeks over your shoulder and immediately cringes.

“Oh god, I didn’t expect you to open that around me.” His face turns red with embarrassment, causing you to laugh.

You rest your head on his shoulder contently as you both sit in a comfortable silence. “The sky is really pretty tonight.” Peter comments. You wordlessly nod in agreement, gazing at the twinkling stars above you. “Look! There’s the big dipper. That’s the only constellation I can ever find.” He chuckles and points at a blotch of stars.

“I don’t see it.” You admit, “I can never find any constellations.”

Instead of shrugging his shoulders and letting you be, Peter smirks as he pulls you in between his legs. With your back leaning against his chest, he points back up to the dark sky.

“Follow my finger.” He instructs, “There’s the weird little half square that makes the bowl and as you move your eyes diagonally, you’ll see the three stars that make the handle.”

You gasp dramatically and grip his thigh, “I see it! Oh my god, I see it.” You turn around to face him, “Peter, I’ve really never seen a constellation before.”

“Well there’s a first time for everything.” He laughs fondly at your excitement. Peter loves that despite having a bad day, you still manage to find joy in the little things.

You wrap your arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss, now straddling his lap. Peter lowers himself onto his back as the kiss becomes heated, his hands carelessly exploring your body. You eventually break the kiss to catch your breath, not wanting to get too carried away out in the open.

You both chuckle shyly as you slide off of him, still cuddling into his side. You shamelessly admire his soft features that are being illuminated by the moonlight. Everything that occurred today is long forgotten. You forgive the universe and officially end your occasional pity party. Your cheeks before sore from smiling so much, but you couldn’t care less.

You let out a satisfied sigh as you finally turn your gaze to the stars. Much to your surprised, you turned right on time. You witness a fast zip of light zoom all the way across the sky for the first time ever, and it stunned you into speechlessness.

“Woah, a shooting star! Did you see it?” Peter looks down at you.

“Mhm.” You hum, eyes still fixed on the sky.

He brings you in closer to his side, “Well, go on and make a wish!”

You look at him tearfully with a loving smile.

“It already came true.”

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Hey guys!! Here’s a one shot for Peter since I haven’t posted a chapter for Just Another Trope in a while. I promise I’m still working on it, but hopefully this holds you over for the time being :)

Like always, positive feedback is welcomed and encouraged.

Sorry about any typos, I write late at night! I’ll proofread later lmao

Thank you so much for reading <3

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x fem!reader #peter parker x you #tom!peter x reader #tom!peter parker #peter parker fluff #peter parker fic

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dragontamer05 · 3 years ago

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If anything happens to me, call this number.

That's what they'd all been told but no one expected to have use it.

But if ever there was one this was it.

Getting in through the main way was impossible so Bodo took the secret route through the sewer. The foul odor attacking his nose as he splashed through the filthy water. As he got closer to the exit he saw two figures laying in the water.

Roa and Dolcetto.

And still no sign of Mr. Greed

Tears welled in his eyes, as he feared the worst hastily moving towards their seemingly dead bodies. His own trembling, unable to believe what he was seeing, through were some of the toughest he knew, and had never seen them beat in a fight.

Roa was strong, stronger then near anyone with only Ulchi snd Mr. Greed to rival his strength. And while not weak by any means what Domcetto lacked in his strength mire then made up for in his speed and accuracy with a blade.

Every so often Bido's mind returned to wondering where their beloved boss had vanished too. No he'd never allow himself to be captured, and killed? Impossible.

At some point Bido had fallen to his knees, the water splashing far up him during to his small stature tears falling. Was this his fault, he'd only been following orders but he'd led that suit of armor right to the Nest, and was only after that things fell apart- awhile he was away.

Only when he tried to wipe them away and ready himself to leave he noticed despite the severity of the wound going almost right across his waist, Dolcetto still breathing, if labored and shallow.

This made him dart over to Roa he two still breathed if barely.

Trembling he reached hands out, wondering what he could do. If he was lucky he might be able to get Dolcetto out, but Roa? Not a chance he was much to large.

With a heavy sigh he lifted Dolcetto as carefully and best he could from the sewer water and back onto the stone ledge, it would have to do for now.

Next was Roa who was harder and wasn't so much as lifted as dragged through the water to raised platform on the side.

Now what?

Nervously Bido looked from his injured friends to down to where the ladder that led to the Nest was.

Well he was mo doctor but he knew they needed help and knew some basic injury care. If he went up top perhaps he could find some bandages or something.

So off he scurried quickly, bare feet slapping against the cold stone. With nothing but hope and a prayer- not that he could say he was all that religious even less so since the time spent in as a lab rat.

He'd have to be quick and careful, there was still a lot of activity around. Ideally he'd rather avoid it but time was of the essence that much was clearly.

Quickly and quietly like a shadow slipped Bido, keeping low before climbing up the salsa and to the ceiling.

Once inside he saw just how damaged it was and more bodies of his fallen brethren. His heart ached but still he kept going to where he knew they'd first aid was kept.

For the moment it seemed people had dispersed, perhaps taking a break or fixated on another place? Bido tried not to let himself worry or focus to long on the dead. Not when few still breathed life.

Upon entering a little room, apparently yet to be touched by the military. He allowed himself to drop tonthe floor landing on all fours.

"Hey!"

Before he could start looking, the sudden voice caused Bido to freeze .

#Doctor for chimera's #fma/iruma-kun #fma #iruma-kun #balam shichirou #bido #roa #dolcetto #fan fic #part 1 / chapter 1

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phoenixmixture26 · 19 days ago

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https://www.phoenixmixer.com/products/lab-equipments/high-speed-disperser/

#High Speed Disperser #Hi-Speed Lab Disperser

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aurora-the-kunoichi · 3 years ago

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The Forgotten - Chapter Seven - Hope Renewed

God this took forever but motivation hit me like a truck the past few days.

Full story here

He knew where to go, making all the right turns and slipping into the secret entrance of the well-hidden base. The heavy door swung open for them and the guard behind it sat staring wide eyed at the tall genius his mouth opening wide with happiness.

“Don.” He quipped launching at the mutant to embrace him.

The green arms opened wide accepting the human happily, “Josh, it’s so good to see you. After all these years of not knowing how the war was going, I was afraid of how everyone was fairing.” Pulling the man back Don eyed him up and down. “All intact, no missing limbs. Good, good.”

Then a high-pitched squeal came from down the hall, a long-winded happy screech that echoed throughout the entire compound. Donnie’s brown eyes left his friend and watched with glee as April came bounding down the long corridor tears streaming down her face. “Donatello!” she screamed elongating her strides until she leaped up and into Donnie arms with everything she was.

Don caught her with ease swinging April around as she pressed happy kisses to his whole entire face.

“You son of a bitch!” Came another ecstatic cry. “Get those nerd hands off my wife!”

Donnie slowed his movements and set April down to greet Casey as he barreled into his plastron. April was smart enough to back up from him because the speed and momentum of the human nearly knocked Donnie from his feet. A steadying hand of Aurora on Don’s carapace kept the two men from tumbling to the ground in a heap.

“Gods man, you are a sight for sore eyes.” Casey laughed wiping away spent tears. “Where the fuck have you been brainiac? Shits gone sideways since you vanished.”

“It has something to do with that arch in the lair, doesn’t it?” April interjected snuggling back into Donnie’s arms now that Casey was a hair length away from him.

By now the commotion had brought a herd of onlookers all excited to see Donatello back in the flesh. One of the brothers back in the fold; one that had been missing for several years.

“Yes April,” he started slowly watching as the crowed got bigger. “I’ve been in another dimension this whole time.” He filled everyone in on his last few years telling them about the other four mutant brothers and the possibility of more across more dimensions. How surreal it was to work with another Donatello sharing ideas and figuring out ways to get him home. It took nearly three hours for the mob to recede and disperse after the story was finished leaving Donnie, Aurora, April, and Casey walking towards R&D.

April ran her hand up and down Donnie’s shell. “I know you just got back but we need to figure this thing out. The sooner you can figure out how this thing works the sooner we can get your brothers back and the rest of Bishop’s zombies.”

“Don’t worry April; I’ve been waiting for this moment for four years. I’m ready to get back to work.”

Pushing the doors open to R&D the small team of scientists nearly choked out a sigh of relief at the familiar frame of the man who had started the lab. They took the explanation for his absence and suddenly became very interested in the machine that sent him across the multiverse.

Aurora stayed right behind Donnie, unwilling to let him out her sight for a second. She was pretty sure she’d accompany him into the bathroom just to make sure he didn’t vanish in thin air again. She was going to be clingy as fuck but at this point, she didn’t care, and he would have to deal with it. She’d crawl into his shell with him if he allowed it. At least she would be his shadow for a little bit, who could blame her?

April slid besides her wrapping her arm around Aurora’s waist for comfort. Her fingers drug Aurora close pressing their sides together and April stifled back a sob.

“He’s here, D is really here.” One hand clumsily wiped away tears as she leaned her head on Aurora’s shoulder to watch the scientists fawn over the return of the nerd. “I bet that was a fun reunion.” She giggled only to the kunoichi.

The blonde bit her lip reminiscing and savoring the ache between her legs. “It was.” She whispered almost breathlessly. “I’m far from through with Don; I hope his stamina hasn’t wavered over the years.”

The tilt of Donnie’s head indicated he had heard her response and the smile that curled the corner of his mouth verified it. He turned away from the scientists and moved to Aurora. A long digit slipped under her chin and tilted her head back to gain access to her mouth.

Opening her mouth to give access to his warm tongue Aurora mewled at the impromptu kiss. Her fingers cupped his cheeks and rubbed her thumb long his bottom lip as they pulled apart. Another quick peck and wink the genius went back to the scientists who were now pulling the item in question from its locked prison.

Being handed the glass tube with the prone metal object inside Donnie’s face scrunched up into confusion. He shook it softly clinking the item around in the glass. “Is it broken?”

“Nope.” Aurora smiled taking the glass cylinder from his large green mitts. Flipping a knife free from her belt she dug the sharp tip into the flesh of her thumb allowing a burst of fresh blood to ooze forth. She unlatched the top and offer a few drops to the thing inside. As the crimson slid down the side Aurora closed the container quickly handing it back to Donatello.

As the warm liquid reached its destination the tiny limbs of the metal object began to search out the blood. Soon the tips of the tentacles were coated in red, and the head began to bob around and moved towards the fresh plasma.

“They’re attracted to blood?” Donne’s eyes were big as saucers observing the now moving specimen with keen interest. “What else do you know about them? How did you come across it? Everything….I need everything.”

Casey took point and filled Don on how they found it and how it searched for living tissue and blood. The scientists followed with their findings since they had taken possession of it and assured there was no tracking device inside. Its sole purpose was to control its host.

As Donnie moved to the equipment in the back of the large room to begin his own assessment one of the scientists came out with the terrapin’s old lab coat. He set the specimen down in a tray and put on his coat and let out a heavy sigh. “Now let’s get this thing figured out.” He watched Aurora take a seat in one of the chairs and made herself comfortable. “You know you don’t have to stay here. I’m sure you hav….”

Aurora quickly cut him off. “I’m not letting you out of my site for quite a while nerd, so concentrate on that thing so we can be done with this mess once and for all.”

Donatello’s smile widened and nodded, “Very well my lady.” Then he turned to begin the work that would bring this war to an end.

As the purple terrapin continued with his work, an array of people cycled through the lab. Most were soldiers confirming orders or asking for leave but Aurora was pretty sure it was to gawk at the mutant. Honestly, she didn’t care she knew Donnie was eating up the attention. The genius was always the one with the confidence issues so knowing he had been missed was a boost to his ego.

Casey made a few appearances just making sure Donnie was really home, coming up next the turtle to pat him on the oversized shell.

“God damn it’s good to have you back D.” Aurora heard Casey exclaim.

April came in late as Aurora began to drift in and out in her chair. Warm hands slipped over her shoulders squeezing at the tense muscles. April’s thumbs dug deep into the tissue getting a soft hiss of blissful discomfort from the kunoichi. Her head lulled back and forth while April continued her work moving between her shoulder blades. “I’ll give you all night to stop that.” Aurora mumbled softly.

April watched the other scientists bid the terrapin goodnight while genius continued to work at the computer, fingers typing away at the data he had just gathered. His long green fingers worked so elegantly over the keys. they were oversized which you would think they would mash clumsily at the small plastic keys, but Donnie had mastered the technique of maneuvering his massive finger pads over the keyboard. “He looks tired.” She leaned down to whisper in Aurora’s ear. “You should take him to bed.”

As April’s fingers stopped and moved down her arms Aurora pushed up from her seat and noticed the tired look on Don’s face. “Yeah, you’re right it’s time for bed. Anything going on tomorrow I should know about?”

“There’s a supply run tomorrow; Casey wants you on it. With the guys more active he wants you around to distract them if they come across the run.”

“Sounds like a plan, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Nite.”

Aurora moved behind the mutant running her nails over the white coat catching the scrutes of his carapace. “Let’s not over work you on the first night back D, let’s go to bed.”

His large hand moved over the back of his neck and turned to the blonde. His golden eyes were tired, but his smile was genuine and warm. Moving closer his arms wrapped around her waist hoisting her up into his lap and his beak nuzzled into the crook of her neck. Warm lips pressed gently against her skin and Aurora tilted her head to give him better access. “Our Bed.” He hummed into her flesh with another kiss. “Next to you.” He continued grazing his teeth as he moved lower. “I would be delighted.”

With one fluid motion the terrapin lifted both of them to his feet and a testament to his strength Donatello moved Aurora to one arm to shed his coat setting it on the nearest chair. Reaching down he grabbed his discarded duffle and headed out into the halls and to their room. As they moved to their destination Aurora’s hand moved over his green crown running her fingers over the purple mask.

Entering their room, Donatello shut the door and deposited his bag on the bed. “I think a shower is in order first.” His steps faulted just for a second scenting the room. “I can smell Leonardo.”

“He paid the compound a visit the other night under the ruse of being “captured”. Thankfully the men weren’t complete idiots and put precautions in place, but he of course escaped and paid me a visit.”

Donnie’s legs stopped setting the woman down to get a look at her face, “Did, did he hurt you?”

“No, not this particular meeting.” Aurora started slowly. “Let’s just say he came for answers, and I obliged, amongst other things. But you know my lack of will power when it comes to you and your brothers. Then when he was docile I used pressure points to prepare him for transport and Casey got him out without compromising our location.”

“Smart.” Brushing a lock of hair form her eyes the genius gave her a knowing smile. “You did always have a way with diffusing any situation when it came to us.” Don whispered against her forehead.

Aurora wriggled from his grasp and began to strip, “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to bring you four to your knees. You four run on sex….well coffee and sex with you, you big nerd.”

“What can I say, I’m a complex man compared to my brothers.”

Gripping his hands Aurora pulled Donatello into the adjoining bathroom, “Come on, how long has it been since you’ve had someone scrub your shell?”

“Years.” Donnie sighed kicking his boots free and unhooking his tech. “That Donnie had invented an extension so we could do it ourselves but it’s never the same as when someone else is doing it.” Suspenders slipped from his shoulders and Donatello’s fingers unfastened his pants allowing them to fall to the tile floor. “I was hoping you could help a turtle out.”

Now fully naked Aurora opened a drawer pulling out the large brush she had used so many times on all their shells. It had laid unused for years and now she was so ready to bring it out of retirement.

His eyes widened along with his smile, “You kept Susan after all these years?”

Her fingers ran over the bristles following the tall terrapin into the massive shower. “I may have packed some things away to help with my sanity, but I kept everything. I just couldn’t get myself to part with your stuff, it felt like I was giving up on you which I was never prepared to do……ever. Thankfully April was behind the madness and allowed me to keep you and your brothers hoard of belongings.”

Hot water poured from the shower as Donatello turned the shower knobs on to the desired temp and stepped under the spray. “I am thankful for that, you have no idea.”

As the genius got used to the water Aurora set to her task and began scrubbing away at the dingy carapace. With all his gear gone she could only see a few specks of paint that remained from Michelangelo’s artwork he had done a few days before Don had disappeared. She pressed gently on those spots trying to preserve it just a little longer. Mikey would be home soon to create another masterpiece.

After a few strokes Don’s hands moved to the shower walls and hung his head fully enjoying the treatment. A few more and he was groaning voicing his bliss until Aurora came across a loose section. Reaching up above his head Aurora pulled a knife from its hiding spot.

“Got a loose one D, give me a minute.”

He made no noise only nodded as the tip of the blade worked under the loose scrute. Just like she had performed this task yesterday the delicate procedure came back to her with ease. Working it side to side the thin plate of finally slipped free floating to the water at their feet. Her fingers ran over the back of his shell searching for anymore loose keratin. She was about to stop when the turtle let out a shuttering breath.

“Please don’t stop, it’s been so long since I’ve felt your hands back there, anyone’s hands back there. A few more minutes please.” His voice was a desperate whisper, who was she to deny him when she was so happy to give.

Letting out a soft chuckle Aurora pressed her lips to a ridge and returned her wandering fingers to the task. Through the grooves and valleys Donnie hummed softly at the gentle contact of the pads from Aurora’s fingers. His head hung low while his stance widened to enjoy the touch. She watched the muscles lose their tension below the taught green scales as he gave into her ministrations. The water cascading over his flesh was mesmerizing, the water traveled through the scales and valleys of the dense visceral tissue. Aurora had forgotten just how long it had been since she was able to enjoy the view of any of them.

“I’ve missed you.” She whispered resting her cheek on his shell.

Standing back to his full height Donatello turned around and wrapped his arms around her pulling Aurora into the warm spray. His large hands ran up and down her back while nestling his chin on the top of her head. “I’ll never leave you again.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

After the shower Donnie pulled Aurora into bed and atop his plastron wrapping his arms around her frame. She adjusted herself resting her ear just above his heart listening to the steady thump of the large muscle.

After a few moments of silence, the rhythm of his breathing indicated Donatello had fallen asleep. Lifting her head Aurora rested her chin on her hands watching the long-lost terrapin slumber. His mask was hanging in the bathroom, so his features were easily viewed. Time seemed to favor them, no wrinkles so signs of aging, still as handsome and young as ever. As her eyes began to droop her fingers reached up cupping his cheek smiling as he leaned into the touch.

“Nite D. Love you.”

Early in the morning she remembered Donnie slipping her from his chest saying he was going back to R & D because he had an idea. With a quick kiss to her lips Don covered Aurora back up and exited into the hallway. When she finally did rouse a note in her palm confirmed his location and lessened the initial panic attack of waking up alone……again. One night, the nerd couldn’t give her one full night, but she couldn’t be too mad if it meant progress.

Getting dressed and ready for the day she hurried to R & D. There Donnie sat at the table, eyes focused on whatever was on the slab in the microscope. Next to him was the metal parasite disassembled with parts marked for identification.

The notepad under his palm as he scribbled with a pencil was littered with notes and code, some illegible only readable to D and other scribble she could make out from her years watching the genius work. Making her way over to him her hands ran up to his shoulders squeezing at the muscles.

“Morning handsome.”

“Goo…..” his voice cut off and his hand begin to write faster, there was no way to decipher it herself. The pencil fell to the note pad and the mutant scooted his chair over the computer and began to type pulling up programs and scrolling through code.

“D?”

His eyes never left the screen but the smile engulfing his face was a good sign, a great sign.

“That son of a bitch!”

“What Don?”

“He’s using the radio waves to send and mask his signal! I was looking for everything and anything that he could use for a signal not even considering something as primitive as radio waves.” Donatello rolled back over to the microscope and looked back at item in its view. “Here look.” Ushering her forward Don pointed to the viewing glass. “Do you know what an EEG is?”

“Yes, I believe so. You did a test on Leonardo once measuring his brain waves when he meditated with EEG technology.”

“Correct, that little device is like an electroencephalograph but instead measuring brain waves it has been modified to manipulate them. But you can’t just send those frequencies out without some sort of carrier. That little blue box at the top left is the tiniest radio receiver I have ever seen. He’s using the radio waves to transmit the frequency to keep them under his control.”

Aurora looked back up at Donnie who was hovering over her. Her fingers found his lab coat and pulled herself up and into his arms. “D you beautiful nerd! Can you stop all this?” her excitement rose as his smile broadened and pressed his lips to hers.

“I still need to get to that base and stop the transmission but I should be able to make some sort of electronic pulse to hopefully permanently disable the devices without causing any damage to its hosts…….hopefully.”

“Fuck after all these years I’ll take it! You just let us know what you need from us.”

“Before you go out to help Casey, I’m going to make a radio jammer for the time being. It won’t disable it but it should block the signal while they are within range of it. I was down in the supply room and saw something that I can jimmyrig to my specks. I don’t know if it will stop the whole transmission, I don’t know the strength of his machine so it might only confuse them enough to get away or they might get their full memory back. Either way it will be a good test.” Moving away from Aurora Donnie made his way to the door. “I’ll start working on it right away. I know Case wants to get going soon.”

Leo rolled to his side bringing his brute brother into view just beside him. Bishop was becoming more and more unhinged with his plan to uproot the remaining resistance and eradicate them. But the man’s aim was still spot on. If that blade, he had plunged into Raphael’s side was 3 millimeters to the left it would have punctured his lung. Thankfully whatever those scientists have injected into them had advanced healing properties. So, the lacerations on Raph’s arms had already begun to heal adding to his many scars but the internal wound would take a little longer.

The leader watched his brother’s chest rise and fall, steady, deep in slumber; the sedative he had given him was doing the trick. If he had just followed orders Raphael wouldn’t have had to endure that. How could he have been so weak; his brother’s safety was his first priority. He couldn’t fail Bishop again; if he did Mikey would be next to butcher.

Speaking of his youngest brother, Mike had been acting a little different since he had gotten back with medical supplies. It had taken him longer than it should, but Michelangelo insisted he couldn’t find the right items and had to ask someone to help to locate what he needed in the warehouse. It was plausible but the one thing that stood out was when he left, he was covered in Raphael’s blood and when he returned his hands were clean smelling of strong chemicals, potent enough to burn his nostrils. And he seemed to keep rubbing at the back of his skull and looking at his arms. It was peculiar but Michelangelo could be an odd duck at times so Leo he didn’t waste too much time thinking about it. But he was now on the leader’s radar, more than usual at least.

He closed his eyes regulating his breathing hoping to find some peace in order to sleep, he focused on his brothers breathing which usually helped but those damn purple eyes, the sounds she made while he took her, marked, claimed, like it was the only thing he was meant to do. But something darker nagged at him something Leo couldn’t quite understand. After she had rendered him unconscious Aurora could have easily ended his life, the top general in her enemy’s army yet she released him…..unharmed. It made her accusations towards Bishop a little more credible. If she was as ruthless as Bishop made the Commander out to be he wouldn’t have been allowed to leave….alive. That he was sure of.

Eventually his mind began to quiet as he played with scenarios in his head, the ones that eased him into slumber involved blonde hair wound between his fingers and a soft body warming his plastron.

Casey and Aurora were going over the plan for the supply run when Donnie came with a small device dwarfed by his large mitts.

“Is that it?” Casey asked turning to give the terrapin his full attention.

Don shook his head giving him the device. “No, it’s something temporary. It will jam the signal theoretically. I’m not sure of the strength of the signal so it could block it completely within a few hundred feet or it could just muddle it enough to confuse them. Plus, I don’t know how much juice this thing will eat up so once you press that little red button you are on borrowed time. We’ll still need to infiltrate the main base to shut the machine down and destroy the servers with the code on there. But at least we know how he’s controlling them.”

Casey rolled the thing around in his hands gently running the tip of his fingers along the old metal. He was quiet for a few beats before he took a long heavy sigh and squeezed at the back of his neck. “Fuck…..it’s been so long since we’ve had hope, like real hope…… I know we’re far from the end of this but jesus fuckin christ this little thing is so beautiful.” His eyes moved back up to Donnie tears brimming in the corners. “You’re beautiful D, I knew you’d figure this shit out.” The man launched forward wrapping his arms around the tall turtle’s neck in an awkward man hug.

Donatello gladly returned the hug picking his friend up off the floor with this height. “We’ll get them all back Case, I promise.” With a quick swing of the man’s free falling legs Don set Casey back on the ground. “I want to go with you guys today.”

Aurora’s fingers hooked around the waist of Donatello’s pants and wiggled his hips, “As much I don’t want to be apart from you, we need you here working on an upgrade for this thing. If we come in contact with anyone, we’ll let you know how it worked and how long it worked for. When we get back, we’ll start on a plan on how to get into the base. I’m hoping I may have an idea on how, but I need to test the theory more.”

“Care to enlighten us?” Donnie asked folding his arms over his chest in suspicion.

“Um….maybe Mikey…..”

Casey’s face scrunched up in disbelief, “What in the fuck are you talking about? Mikey is one of them?”

“Well……I was so caught up in Donnie returning that I forgot to mention that I encountered Mike in the base. He saw me, the little shit and cornered me in a room. Thankfully he didn’t alert anyone because you know him, always with the questions and without big brother there to intimidate him Mikey wanted his answers. He asked about his birthmark as a test.”

“The slice of watermelon?” the chuckle was hard to disguise in Don’s voice.

“Yes.”

“The one you like to chew on after he gets out of the shower?”

“The very one.”

“GUYS!”

“Sorry, that and the way I looked at them when we first encountered them a few months ago on the truck. You know how intuitive Mike is; he can read a soul like a god damn book. He could see that I was happy to see them when I should have been scared. Well, that was until they tried to kill me. But he knew something was up and it had been bugging him ever since. Long story short I confirmed his suspicions and he helped me get out undetected. But while we were finishing our conversation, I mentioned Don here and Mikey’s head began to hurt. At that very moment that thing inside him was making its rounds around the back of his skull and he could feel it. Freaked him the fuck out but it was proof enough. I think even though that thing is still inside him he’s ready to help. At least I hope he is.”

She watched their faces as the two men processed the information she had just given them. Casey was still skeptical, but she couldn’t blame him and Donnie…there was hope in his eyes but he hadn’t seen the viciousness his brothers had exhibited a few months back. Aurora was hopeful too, but she knew not to get too excited.

As the trucks were prepped Casey and Aurora loaded up in the front cab. Aurora set the precious cargo on the seat between them ready to test out its usefulness if need be tonight. Her katanas hung at her side and as she adjusted them two large hands reached into the cab.

“I still want to go with you.” Donatello’s hands encircled her wrists bringing her hands to his mouth. His lips moved across her knuckles quickly before setting them back in her lap. “I should be going with you.”

Aurora leaned out into the tall terrapin’s personal space and kissed him. “I know, but you have important work to do. We’re just going for a supply run, food and medical supplies are running low and we heard the warehouse on 7th and Juniper just got nice big shipments. We’ll be in and out and back before you know it.”

He huffed his frustration and nodded stepping back from the truck. “Be careful.” Both Casey and Aurora waved to the genius as they pulled out from their secure location.

Per usual they took to the streets using the overpopulated city as cover. Their route was set before they left the compound separating the convey for a bit to make sure they weren’t followed and to keep their profile low. Lefts and rights accompanied by a few back tracks, and they met at their first destination on 7th.

Cameras were disabled before they pulled into position and guards rendered unconscious by their resident kunoichi with ease. Aurora took point on the roof tops keeping watch on the shadows as the men infiltrated the warehouse and took what they needed. The first truck was loaded with much needed food and water, taking care not to pilfer too much. They broke nothing, killed no one and were out within 10 minutes leaving only the missing crates as proof of their presence.

As Casey pulled the truck out of the dock the hockey nut signaled for his silent partner to return to the cab. With less than a light shuffle on the top of the cab Aurora slipped in through the open window soundlessly.

“To Juniper next.” Casey smiled setting out to their next location. “Should be there in 20 minutes.”

Before they got close Aurora slipped from the truck once again taking to the shadows for cover. She moved silently over the rooftops before slipping down to the guards below sending them to dreamland in a matter of seconds.

Pressing the com in her ear she made the all clear. “The chickens are put to bed.”

“Thanks, take to the roof and make sure no coyotes get close.”

The truck was docked, and their men took to task while Aurora moved to the rooftops to keep a look out. This haul would take longer; Donnie had made a few adjustments to the list of supplies. He needed a few special components to make his tech so some searching would be in order.

Slipping the backpack from her shoulders making sure not to jostle the device too much the kunoichi opened the bag setting Donnie’s device within arm’s reach but hidden in the shadows. The last thing she needed to do was break the thing. They needed to test it, but she didn’t want to chance it on the guards and potentially ruin tonight’s mission.

No, secretly she hoped they would get a visit from the three brothers to really test Don’s theory. But as time ticked by tonight’s run was going smoothly with little effort. Then as if on cue the shadows to her left moved and Aurora knew tonight would be anything but easy.

Then she heard it, the soft sing of katana leaving its scabbard alongside the clink of chains from a nunchaku. Her heart immediately began to race but on instinct her hands rested on the hilts of her weapons but kept them seated in their sheaths. Swallowing the lump in her throat Aurora leaned against the cooling unit and called for her guests. “Gentlemen.”

“Evening Aurora.” The imposing voice of Leonardo cut through the chill of the night.

They emerged from the darkness; three ominous figures weapons drawn. Bottom halves were wrapped in black, along with massive black boots on their feet. Their chests were bare, minus harnesses for their deadly equipment.

Aurora stood her ground waiting for them to make their move, there was a reason they didn’t immediately attack her. Her last interactions with each turtle hadn’t resulted in bodily harm so she didn’t immediately sense danger. But the readiness of their weapons wasn’t the best indication of a peaceful ending. Either way she needed to let Casey know they were in danger. So carefully she lifted one hand from its weapon to press her ear com under the guise of pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Let’s leave them out of this shall we?” Leo mused forebodingly as he took a step closer to his prey. “We are not here for them; they can continue with their mission as planned. Unless you alert them to our presence then there will be no mercy.”

Raphael moved up to left side his leader resting his arm on Leo’s shoulder twisting his sia in his three fingered grasp. “So, blondie, let’s just keep this between us. We don’t want this to get out of hand and end in blood shed.”

Aurora’s eyes moved from Raph to Leo then to Mikey seeing the uncertainly behind those baby blues but those chucks hung at his side non the less. “No, I don’t want this to escalate to a fight.” Her hand returned to the hilt of her katana and let out a sigh to try and release some tension that was growing in her chest. She wanted this right? To test the device. But the way they were looking at her, to access the thing might prove to be difficult without rousing suspicion. “If you’re not here to stop us then what can I assist you with tonight?”

Leonardo began to move towards the kunoichi, but something embed into the tar of the rooftop just at the tip of his boot. Now on high alert they focused in on the shiny kunai just millimeters from Leo’s boot and looked up just in time to see a large mass spin through the air and land just before Aurora.

All three of the mutants froze watching in shock and aww as a 6’8’ foot tall mutant turtle now blocked their view of the blonde. He looked like them but wore purple around his crown with what looked like an electric staff out and ready. A new familiar feeling began to bubble in the threes chests like they knew who he was, missed him. But the new mutant was obviously protecting the woman, one hand on her lower abdomen to keep her away but his sole focus was on them. He was protecting her like he loved her, like she said they should. What was this feeling?

Then the woman behind them lunged for something to her side and every cell of their bodies screamed in pain. Weapons clattered to the ground as they clutched their heads screaming, bellowed until their knees gave out.

In the distance Aurora and Donnie could hear more screaming, hundreds of people crying out in pain as the device blocked the signal that had been streaming into their bodies for years.

Aurora moved around Donnie, but his fingers reached for her arm to stop her from running to the three writhing brothers.

“Wait.”

What felt like years the sounds of screaming finally stopped leaving the three mutants breathing heavily on their knees. One by one each looked up with tears in their eyes and locked in on the genius.

“Donnie?!”

@imthegreenfairy88 @tmntspidergirl @ravn-87 @turtle-babe83

#tmnt #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #tmnt michaelangelo #the forgtten #chapter seven #hope renewed

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pokemonispain · 4 years ago

Text

Workaholic-Aether/Albedo

Summary: While completing an experiment in Dragonspine Albedo falls sick, leaving it up to Aether to care for him.

_______________________________________________________________

Surprisingly Albedo is no stranger to illness, despite his unique biological circumstances. Whether it be from one of his experiments or because Klee, like most children her age, tended to put their hands on everything without regard for cleanliness.

So when Albedo wakes up in his temporary camp in Dragonspine more tired than he was when he went to bed, with his joints aching as well as his stomach he just lays there for a few moments staring up at the stone roof.

Rolling over onto his side he carefully sits up sigh leaving his lips as the world sways for a moment. There is a haze in his mind making it incredibly hard to form a coherent thought, he slowly got to his feet glaring down at the ground when the motion made him stumble slightly and his stomach flip.

Despite moving as slowly as possible his body still felt heavy, and an almost creaking ache spread through his knees as he walked across his lab, his blanket still wrapped around his shoulders.

He stopped in front of one of the multitiered wooden shelves, reaching up while standing on his tiptoes until he was able to grasp the small tin box he was looking for. It was a box of mint tea to help calm the churning and aching in his stomach as well as soothe his fried nerves so that he could focus.

Thankfully there was enough for one cup of tea, if Albedo wanted more he’d have to leave the camp to pick some. Normally this would’ve been a simple task considering mint grew just about everywhere in Dragonspine, but at the moment, to Albedo this task seemed as gargantuan as trying to scale the very mountain itself.

As he sipped on the tea he could feel the haze in his mind disperse slightly, although it wasn’t still up to its usual speed. His stomach still ached but at least he couldn’t feel it churning inside him anymore. But for now, it was good enough, at least he could get dressed without worrying about either passing out or throwing up, which was a win in his book.

Some part of Albedo, the more clinical and logical part of him, knew that he should probably take some medicine and just go back to sleep. But the more emotional and stubborn side of him, felt like he needed to finish this experiment. That one day of lost progress meant that he was falling behind, and falling behind meant failure which was something he couldn’t allow to happen.

And so even with his head pounding and the world seemingly swaying beneath his feet, he swallowed back the bile burning in the back of his throat, quickly took some medicine, and got to work.

~~~

Albedo stopped for a moment steadying himself on his workbench as he stumbled and for a moment the world began a smear of colors around him that haze in his mind coming back in full force. He swallowed hard, feeling his stomach slosh as it tried to climb up his throat.

With a sigh, Albedo turned off the flame beneath the test tubes and closed the notebook in front of him. Walking over he picked up his sword from beside his bed, he doubted that he would need it but going anywhere in Dragonspine without it was just foolish.

He was going out to get more mint so that he could make more mint tea, and once he was focused enough he’d be able to complete his experiment then take a much-needed rest.

Albedo winced as he stepped outside, it was late morning nearly afternoon, and with clear skies, the sun was out in full force. Its usual light felt way too bright almost piercing to his eyes.

The sheer cold of Dragonspine’s climate hit him almost immediately, it was an awful piercing chill that seemed to start from within his body and work its way out. Clutching his chest for a moment Albedo squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe around the pain in his chest that seemed to be weighing down his lungs.

Taking a deep shuddering breath Albedo began walking, the sheer cold was reeking absolute hell on his already weakened body. He needed to gather the mint and return to camp quickly.

Albedo managed to find some rather quickly, thankfully because he felt absolutely awful. His entire body felt heavy and hot, stopping for a moment he leaned against one of the trees. Reaching up, he attempted to remove his jacket but stopped because somewhere within his mind, even with the haze clouding it he knew that it was a bad idea.

Pushing off from the tree he stumbled forward, stopping again when the world began to swirl into a smear of colors, bringing with it a wave of nausea and dizziness. He fell to his hands and knees retching, the mint tea he’d drank and medicine he’d taken earlier coming up as black spots filled his vision.

For a moment he just sat there hollow burps and hiccups leaving his mouth in between the dry heaving and gagging, his stomach still trying to turn itself inside out.

Albedo could feel his arms trembling beneath him from the strength of holding himself up, as the black spots in his vision grew. He felt himself fall into the snow-covered ground. He had just enough time to think that the cold snow pressing against his feverish skin felt amazing before his consciousness faded.

~~~

One thing Aether couldn’t get used to whenever he came to Dragonspine to visit Albedo was the sheer cold. Its violent chill seemed to cloak him invading every part of his body, and that said something considering he’d traveled to places much colder than Dragonspine during his travels with Lumine.

Although considering all the history behind Dragonspine, he wouldn’t be surprised if the cold was some malevolent force created by the corrupted dragon heart in the center of the mountain. Rather than a naturally cold climate.

He’d used a teleporter waypoint to transport himself to the teleporter waypoint located close to Albedo’s camp. Aether was forever grateful that these things existed, he had no clue how they worked but whenever he touched one it would transport him almost exactly where he wanted to go, or at least somewhere around the area.

Adjusting his scarf he made his way across the broken broken bridge, practically leaping across it as he always did. He makes his way down the snow and frost-covered pathway, having become familiar with the route long ago.

He stopped by to visit Albedo up here frequently, occasionally they’d spend the night together. There were rare times where both of them would have free time and meet up in Mondstadt for a date or to just spend time together.

Aether stopped walking as he came upon a familiar overlook that sat on the right side of the pathway. Previously a Ruin Grader had sat there, although it had been defeated for a while now, being one of the first Ruin Graders Aether had defeated during his initial trip to Dragonspine.

This time however what caught his attention was something glinting in the sunlight. Scowling he slowly walked over, as he got closer though he noticed a figure lying face down, partially covered by the snow.

It wasn’t rare for experienced adventures to come up here. Occasionally inexperienced ones would try exploring Dragonspine despite the adventurers guild forbidding it. Those cases typically didn’t end well.

Aether’s worry and panic turned into pure blood-chilling fear as he got closer to the figure.

“Albedo?” he whispered, dropping down beside the other boy.

He reached out but froze for a moment as though he was afraid to touch him. With a trembling hand he placed two fingers to Albedo’s neck, an almost euphoric wave of relief washing over him when he felt the slow but steady thump of a pulse beneath his fingertips.

Aether bit his lip, carefully brushing some of the snow off of Albedo before picking him up and placing him in his lap. Albedo’s skin was warm and incredibly pale, his face pinched in pain a light red flush on his cheeks as his breath came out in weak shuddering pants.

“Albedo? Hey, wake up, ” Aether said, a panicked edge in his voice as he tapped Albedo’s cheek. However, he remained limp practically dead to the world around him.

Was he sick? Did he get injured somehow? Aether didn't see any blood, although when he glanced around he did notice that Albedo had been laying beside a half-frozen puddle of something that looked like vomit.

Albedo didn't respond when Aether shook him either. A heavy feeling of dread weighed down his shoulders, no matter how long it had been since he’d arrived in Teyvat the memory of losing Lumine was still fresh in his mind.

Biting his lip Aether glanced back over his shoulder, Albedo’s camp in Dragonspine wasn’t that far from here. First thing first he needed to get Albedo warmed up and hopefully conscious. If Albedo’s body was still this warm despite the fact that he’d been exposed to the sheer cold this long, then he more than likely had a fever.

Aether stood up, shifting Albedo so that he had one arm slung around Aether’s neck, while he had an arm around Albedo’s waist holding him to his side. Thankfully he and Albedo were about the same height so it definitely made things easier.

Once he reached the entrance of Albedo’s lab, the other boy began to move slightly shifting against Aether’s side as he groaned.

Aether gave a sigh of relief, some of the dread that had been clinging to him like a second skin vanishing. “Thank the Archons,” he whispered. This was good, hopefully, Albedo was lucid enough to tell him what had happened.

Aether sat him down in the chair close to one of the lanterns on his workbench. Albedo groaned again, slumping forward slightly as his eyes slowly opened halfway.

“Albedo?” Aether said as he leaned forward a bit to look into Albedo’s face. From this angle, Aether could see that he was still pale, and the feverish blush still on his cheeks.“Hey, I’m right here. It’s Aether, can you hear me?”

Albedo’s glassy eyes slowly met his before he gave Aether a small stilted nod.

Aether chuckled softly as more relief seemed to wash away the dread. Albedo was awake and lucid enough to understand him at least, this was good.

“Did you take any medicine yet?” Aether asked, leaning back a bit so that he was standing normally.

While Albedo did typically take care of himself when sick or allowed Aether to, Albedo’s biggest problem was that it was hard to get him to stop working and rest even when sick. Short of literally tethering him to the bed that is.

“Yes,” Albedo said, his voice coming out raspy and tired. He slowly rubbed a hand over his face as he stared at the ground with narrow eyes.

His throat felt sore and raw, his head was pounding and every small noise, even Aether’s normally soothing voice, seemed to grate on his ears aggravating his already fired nerves.

“What were you doing out there,” Aether asked, gently grabbing Albedo’s shoulder to steady him when he swayed slightly.

Albedo frowned, a look of confusion covering his face as he slowly blinked up at Aether. “Out where?” Albedo grimaced his hand going to his stomach as a streak of pain ran across it.

“I found you passed out, outside. On that little cliff where the Ruin Grader used to be, close to your lab,” Aether told him. He sighed, crossing his arms, “You must’ve had a good reason to leave the lab in your condition.”

A quick glance around the lab told Aether that Albedo had already started working this morning, as usual, the liquid in the test tubes and the materials laid out on the workbench. But the fact that Albedo had his sword with him meant that he’d left for some reason, the boy never traveled in Dragonspine without it.

Albedo’s frown deepened, as he tried to break through the haze in his mind. What Aether was telling him sounded correct, and he did remember stopping in the middle of his experiment for something. “Mint,” he eventually muttered, one hand still rubbing his stomach.

“Mint?” Aether echoed eyes wide. “You left the lab, in your condition, to get mint?” He said slowly. He could feel his worry and fear turning into anger, what if he’d been a few minutes late when he came up here to visit Albedo? How long would he have been out there laying in the snow before he froze to death?

“Why did you go looking for mint? You could’ve waited until I came up to visit you, you know I always have some on me,” Aether told him, his tone growing harsh.

Albedo flinched, and Aether’s gaze instantly softened.

“I needed it to make tea, I’m sorry, ” Albedo told him softly. He made a move to stand up but stopped when the world tilted sideways, his vision blurring as his stomach sloshed becoming unsettled by both his movement and the way the room was spinning.

“It's fine. Do you think you can make it to the teleporter waypoint?” Aether asked, placing a hand on Albedo’s shoulder to both steady him and stop him from trying to stand up again.

Albedo closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing hard. Despite the fact that he couldn’t see the world swaying before his eyes, he could almost feel it. He felt his stomach practically flip inside of him, and bile burned the back of his throat.

Aether’s eyes widened when Albedo lurched forward in his grip, with a harsh strangled sounding retch. Bile and saliva streamed from his mouth, splattering both of their clothes.

Shaking off his shock Aether hissed softly as he brushed Albedo’s hair out of his face. Even through his gloves, Aether could tell Albedo had a fever, his fingers brushing across Albedo’s forehead as he tucked the ash-blonde strands behind his ears.

“I guess that’s a no,” Aether muttered trying to keep his tone light. “Let me guess you took medicine earlier but that came up while you were outside?”

Albedo gave a small nod, a gurgling burp had him bringing up more bile. It was hot, feeling as though it was searing his already aching throat as the bitter and sour taste coated his tongue only making his nausea worse. Tears filled his eyes from the exertion.

Eventually, though his vomiting tapered off into dry heaving and he just sat there trying to get his bearings. His arms wrapped around his stomach, his body jolting slightly as hiccups left his mouth.

He desperately wanted to remove his coat, it made him feel as though his body was burning but at the same time, the thought of moving right now made him feel nauseous.

Aether sighed. “Okay, I’ll make you some mint tea and then we can try the medicine again. If that stays down then I’ll make you some broth,” he told him.

Albedo gave a soft hum. “The teapot is on the shelf,” he whispered.

Aether nodded, stepping away from Albedo, once he was sure that he wouldn’t fall out of the chair or try to stand up again he walked over to the shelf in question.

Albedo slowly blinked his eyes roving around his lab for a moment, before they landed on his closed notebook sitting on his workbench. That was right, he still had to finish his experiment.

Carefully shrugging out of his jacket Albedo shakily got up. When Aether had finally grabbed the teapot he turned back around to see Albedo standing in front of his workbench, his jacket discarded in the chair he’d been sitting in moments before.

“Albedo, no,” Aether reprimanded him as he walked over to Albedo. Setting the teapot aside he grabbed his shoulder intent on guiding Albedo to the bed.

But Albedo didn’t budge as he glanced at Aether, complete awareness in his glassy eyes. “I will rest momentarily, I need to complete this first,” Albedo assured him, it was something he typically said whenever he was sick. As though that would appease Aether’s concerns.

“No. Because you say that and then I have to literally pick you up and bring you to bed when you nearly collapse,” Aether pointed out as he attempted to pull Albedo away.

Normally he would’ve just picked him up, considering that between the two of them Aether was the stronger one, but Albedo still looked nauseous and Aether really didn’t want to be responsible for setting his stomach off again.

So he tried a more diplomatic approach. “Besides we were supposed to spend the day together, remember?”

“That’s right,” Albedo muttered. Of course he remembered, it was the main reason Aether had traveled up Dragonspine today in the first place. “What would you like to do?” He asked with a slight smile, closing his notebook once more. He knew when he’d lost a battle.

Aether grinned, it was a look that never failed to give Albedo a sense of pride and happiness. He always found it so incredible how such a small gesture made him feel as though everything was right with the world. “Well, first we should probably change clothes. Then I’ll make you some mint tea and we can eat some soup before going to sleep,” Aether told him.

At his words, Albedo glanced down at his and Aether’s clothes only just now seeing the slight splattering of bile on them. “Oh...I see,” Albedo slowly muttered. He grimaced as he looked back at Aether. “I apologize about that.”

“It’s fine, they can always be washed after all. Besides we’re about the same size so I can just wear one of your spare outfits. You should also probably dry your hair too,” Aether said, giving Albedo’s hand a gentle squeeze.

Albedo allowed Aether to guide him to the bed. Once he’d sat down, Aether stopped for a moment leaning down a bit to press their foreheads together, his thumb brushing over the star-shaped birthmark on Albedo’s throat causing a slight shiver to run up Albedo’s spine. Aether gave a soft hum as he drew back with a scowl and worry in his eyes. “Yeah, your fever’s still pretty high. Did you get sick because of an experiment or because of something else?”

As Aether spoke he grabbed a change of clothes for them both, handing Albedo his before going over to start preparing the tea.

As Albedo changed he watched Aether, it was something he always did. Simply admiring the small gestures and habits he had, the way Aether would tuck loose strands of his hair behind his ear, the way he hummed softly to himself as he worked. All of those actions were something Albedo found incredibly fascinating, no matter how many times he’d witness them.

“I believe I caught something a few days ago from Klee when I returned to Mondstadt. It would not be the first time, and despite educating her on how to properly wash her hands I doubt it will be the last,” Albedo told him as he climbed into bed.

It was a medium-sized cot, nothing particularly special although it did allow room for both Aether and himself to share it.

“Here you are,” Aether said as he carefully handed Albedo the cup of tea. He’d taken off his gloves laying them on the workbench.

Aether bit his lip as he watched Albedo for a moment. The other boy hesitantly brought the cup to his lips pausing for a moment, his eyes closing briefly when his stomach hitched slightly, still unsettled from earlier.

“If you can’t drink it, it’s okay. Don’t force yourself,” Aether told him gently, his eyes still full of worry.

Both of them knew that if Albedo had trouble keeping this down, then things were definitely not okay. In fact, it meant that Aether would have to take him back to Mondstadt immediately, even if he had to carry him to the nearest teleporter.

Albedo took a careful sip and when his body didn’t instantly reject it, both he and Aether gave a sigh of relief.

“Good. That’s good,” Aether muttered to himself with a smile. He handed Albedo the medicine and a cloth to dry his hair since it was still damp from the time he spent in the snow, then Aether changed his clothes and began fixing soup for them both.

“Did you leave Paimon in Mondstadt?” Albedo asked as he watched Aether. The little fairy girl was almost always by Aether’s side.

Aether shook his head. “No, I left her with Xiangling in Liyue like I usually do when we spend time together. Xiangling always lets her try new dishes.”

Albedo nodded as he finished drying his hair, tossing the towel off to the side. Eventually, Aether was done with the soup, carefully handing the wooden bowl to Albedo.

“You spoil me quite a bit,” Albedo said with a small smile.

Aether chuckled as he sat down on the bed beside him. “Why, because you’re actually eating every day now like you’re supposed to?”

“Who not to blame if you?” Albedo said as he took a bite of his soup. It was as delicious as always which was no surprise, Aether was a great cook. Albedo knew how to cook as well but it was more so that he could teach and take care of Klee.

Aether simply grinned at him and they lapsed into their comfortable silence as they ate.

Once they were done Aether took their bowls, setting them aside to wash in the morning before joining Albedo in bed once more. Allowing Albedo to pull him close, practically cuddling him.

Aether frowned his fingers brushing over the star on Albedo’s throat, both of them were tired despite it only being sunset. Although Albedo more so if the way he was fighting to stay awake was anything to go by. Aether continued gently running his fingers over the star on Albedo's throat, knowing that it was a sensitive spot.

The very first time Aether had touched it Albedo had practically moaned, it was coincidentally also the first time Aether had seen him embarrassed or flustered since it happened in public. Other times, if Albedo wasn’t feeling well and Aether touched the spot it created more of a soothing effect for him.

“It’s alright, I’m right here. And I’ll still be here when you wake up in the morning,” Aether gently reassured him.

Albedo had yet to admit it to him, but Aether knew, just by the look on his face whenever he spoke of his master, that waking up and finding that he’d been left alone or abandoned was one of Albedo’s biggest fears. And ever since he’d lost Lumine it was Aether’s as well.

When Albedo’s eyes finally slid closed Aether gave him a kiss on his forehead before drawing back a bit, snuggling into Albedo’s arms.

~~~

Albedo wakes up in the middle of the night, his stomach aching and his body feels way too hot. He carefully shifts out of Aether’s arms but that doesn’t do much.

His body is heavy and aching as he forces himself to move to crawl out of bed. His stomach is churning violently, a loud gurgling noise coming from it as waves of nausea crash over him. Albedo turned a half stumbled, half staggered, his way to the entrance of his lab, he made it about halfway before practically falling to his knees as the world seemed to pitch and shift beneath him. As his mouth starts rapidly filling with saliva he clamps a hand over his mouth and attempts to get to his feet once more.

His legs shake beneath him and his attempt fails, the sudden shift in movement only making his nausea worse.

Aether jolts awake as a loud guttural retching noise enters his ears. For a moment or two, he lays there slightly dazed and confused before realizing Albedo is no longer in bed beside him.

He frantically gets up his eyes scanning the lab before finding Albedo. Aether rushes over to him placing a hand on his back as Albedo retches again adding to the growing puddle of vomit in front of them.

“Okay, shit, okay just get it up it’s alright,” Aether said softly.

Albedo shook his head, gagging emptily over the mess before a loud belch brings up more of his stomach contents. Aether can’t do anything but rub his back and brush his hair out of his face while comforting him the best he can.

“Why didn’t you wake me up if you weren’t feeling well,” Aether asked once Albedo had stopped throwing up. The other boy is just coughing and hiccuping now as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I already ruined our day together, I didn’t want to burden you,” he whispered after a moment.

And Aether sighed, taking Albedo’s face in his hands. “Listen, you are not and have never been a burden to me or caused me any trouble. Especially not when you’re sick you can’t help that alright? If anything, trying to hide it like this only makes me worry worse.”

Albedo slowly nodded, glancing away.

“Good, I’ll grab our swords, and then we’ll take the nearest teleporter back to Mondstadt so that I can take you home. It’ll be a lot easier to take care of you there than up here in Dragonspine,” Aether told him, pressing a kiss to Albedo’s forehead.

He helped him to his feet before grabbing Albedo’s jacket and their weapons. Once they were ready, they set off. Aether could only hope that Albedo’s condition would begin to improve once they’d gotten back to Mondstadt.

#emetophilia #emeto fic #genshin impact #genshin sickfic #sickfic #my writing #Genshin emeto #genshin fanfic #aether x albedo #albedo genshin impact #aether genshin impact #mild hurt/comfort

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procrastinatingsapphictrash · 4 years ago

Text

Slide in the wall

Word count: 1418

Genre: I guess fluff but this is super random

Pairing: Platonic!Tony x reader (with some Pepper at the end)

Warnings: Swearing but in a friendly way (let me know if I need to add more)

Request: ... and this ones pretty vague but i just cried over a stark!reader after tony died so would love anything fluffy tony!

Summary: Tony and the reader find plans that they made while drunk and decide to build them without the permission of Pepper.

A/n: This request was for @casperlikej so I hope you like it. If I’m going to be completely honestly I don’t even know what I wrote here and it’s probably trash but whatever, I hope everyone enjoys anyways. It was also my first time writing for Tony so I don’t know how well I did but again, this isn’t meant to be a super serious fic, it’s very lighthearted fun.

“How did you think that date was going to go well? It was at a seedy bar!” Tony asks you incredulously.

“I was desperate.” You answer honestly.

“Why, because you haven’t gotten any action in months?” Tony mocks.

“Oh fuck off.” You tell him while holding up your middle finger behind her with one hand as you continue to work with your other.

“Excuse me, is this how you speak to your boss?”

You laugh, “So you’re the boss of the avengers now? Besides, we both know you’re only the boss of anything on paper, if you wanted to fire me you’d have to go through Pepper first.” He opens his mouth to protest but you shush him.

“Don’t shush me.” You ignore his warning and shush him again, holding out an architecture design you had just found buried beneath some folders. He grumbles and takes it but when he looks at what it says his annoyance disappears. You smile as you see him read the page that details exact plans of how to install a slide from the top floor where both your rooms are, all the way to the labs in the basement with multiple places to get on or off in between.

“When did we make this?”

“I don’t know,” you respond, shrugging, “maybe while we got drunk a few nights ago?”

“That makes sense but this plan is good, even if we were wasted when we made it, we have to do this.” He says and you nod in agreement, knowing that he is serious and fully on board with the plan.

“But we can’t let the others know because they would stop us,” you tell him, “and we need to do it before Pepper gets back from her business trip or else she’ll figure it out.”

“We need to start now.” He agrees while calling a screen from Jarvis and pulling up some materials to buy. With Jarvis’s help it only takes a few minutes to decide which ones would be best to buy because Jarvis compared all of the different compagnies and figured out the best quality materials. You then move onto finding a team of workers who would be willing to work in secret to install the slide but it isn’t as hard as it sounds because Tony just promises to pay them ten times their normal hourly price so they agree easily. The rest of the day is spent improving the plans and figuring out how to keep the other avengers occupied so nobody notices.

---

The next day you wake up early to go down to the labs and make sure all the materials and workers are ready. When you get down you find Tony is already there, explaining everything to the workers to make sure everything runs smoothly. The workers look weirded out by what they are being asked to install and the manner they are being asked to install it in but don’t question him because they are thankful to be paid this much.

“Hey Tony,” you say as the workers disperse to get on with the day, “ready to distract the team?”

“Of course,” he replies, “keeping them off of the top ten floors shouldn’t be too hard, even if it is where their rooms are because I booked us a full day meeting with Fury to go over whatever he wanted, I didn’t pay attention to what he said.”

You groan. “Was there seriously no other way? I swear that man makes his meetings boring on purpose just so he can yell at us when we fall asleep.”

“Are you still mad about that? It happened two years ago.” You don’t have a response to that so you just stick your tongue out at him. He laughs at you as he starts walking out of the lab. “By the way, we’re both already late.”

“Fuck you!” You yell after him as you rush to catch up.

---

A week later and all seventy floors had been completed so the slide ran from the top floor to the labs with a place to get in and out at around every ten floors. Somehow none of the other avengers had noticed that on one of the far walls of each floor there was a jut out that hadn’t been there before, some of the jut outs even having doors. As soon as you say thank you to the workers and they leave, you and Tony rush up to the top floor to try the slide out.

Both of you want to go first so you sit on the edge while Tony sits behind you, wrapping his legs and arms around you in a way that reminds you of doing this with your brother on the playground as kids. As soon as he is secured you push off, gliding down. It’s just as fun as you imagined and works perfectly, slowing down at every exit just enough for you to grab a bar to stop yourself, before speeding back up again. It takes almost a minute for you to make it all the way down, plopping onto the mattress Tony had the foresight to set there. You turn to each other with huge smiles and excitement shining in both your eyes.

“Again.” You both say simultaneously, racing to get up the stairs. You were about to get on the elevator on the first floor when something made you pause.

“What is this?” Pepper’s shrill voice rang out. Tony gulped and you both creep to the room where the other avengers stood in fear of her and peek your heads around the doorway. If you hadn’t also been scared you would have been amused by the sight of the world’s greatest heroes rendered speechless by a normal businesswomen.

Natasha speaks first. “I have no idea, I didn’t notice but I can assure you I had no part in whatever somebody did to change the shape of the room.”

“I trust you,” Pepper says, “Besides, Tony and Y/n are the only ones who are suspiciously not here.” After she says that you both pull your heads back.

“I’m blaming it on you.” Tony says.

“Me, no, I’m blaming it on you! You paid for it!”

“Yeah well you had the idea.” He accuses.

“No I did not!” You defend yourself although you don’t even know who made it since you were both drunk.

“Fine, maybe you didn’t but you showed me the design when you could have just thrown it away.”

“Oh like you would ha-”

“You two are not as quiet as you think.” Pepper says, cutting you off. “Now come out so I can talk to you properly.” You step timidly into the room, pushing Tony in front of you.

“Hi sweetheart.” Tony says weakly, with a guilty smile.

“Don’t sweetheart me. I want to know why the room is a different shape!” Pepper yells while the team snickers at your misfortune.

“Are you sure the room hasn’t always been this way? I for one don’t notice a difference.” Tony says, playing dumb.

“You know that would be a lot more convincing if the paint colours were the same on the new walls as they are on the old ones.” Pepper says, looking completely done with Tony.

“How was I supposed to know there are different versions of white?” Tony asks her, ignoring the dangerous flash in her eyes.

“Tony…” she practically growls, “why did you do this?” He nudges your side for you to respond instead of him.

“We built a slide to the labs.” You tell her.

“So let me get this straight,” she says, pretending to think out loud, “you two added a slide from here to the labs, renovating the floors without consulting me?” You and Tony look at each in horror. If she was this upset about one floor, she would undoubtedly be pissed once she found out the full length of the slide.

“SoactuallytheslidegoesfromthetopfloorallthewaytothelabsI’mverysorryIloveyou. (So actually the slide goes from the top floor all the way to the labs, I’m very sorry, I love you)” Tony said all in one breath before running away pulling you after him.

Pepper stands shocked for a second but as you get further away you hear her yell something indistinguishable. You feel a little bad and you can tell Tony does too but after a lot of begging and making up for it Pepper will forgive both of you and besides, the slide was totally worth it.

#tony stark #tony stark x reader #ironman #ironman x reader #avengers x reader #avengers #pepper potts #marvel fanfiction

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dragoqueen · 4 years ago

Text

Whoops! Wrong Way 7/8

Summary: Peter has been living at Avengers Tower for 2 years, known to the workers and Avengers as Peter Parker-Stark-Rogers. When his teacher announces that they're going on a field trip to Avengers Tower, or SI, he's going to have to attempt to survive a day of embarrassment and keeping a secret identity.

Words: 2278

“Parker!” Flash calls from across the hallway, “you. Here. Now.”

Peter quickly walks over to Flash, peering cautiously around the hallway in a search for cameras. Flash seems to realize what he’s doing and also looks for cameras. Upon spotting one he grabs Peter and throws him into an empty storage room with no cameras. “What the heck was that in there?”

“W-what? What are you talking about?” Peter stutters.

“You know what I’m talking about! That stunt you pulled with the Avengers? Making everyone think that they know you and with the Avengers? Making everyone think that they know you and have some sort of training with them. I’m not falling for it. You better fess up now or you’ll regret it.”

“Flash, I- I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine then, have it your way, Peter.”

The first hit comes, causing Peter’s spider-sense to flair up. Warning! incoming hit, face. But he can’t do anything about it. From there, each hit comes one after another. Finally, when Peter’s slumped up on the floor in a fetal position, Flash decides he’s done. “Have fun missing out on the rest of the trip, Peter,” he says, leaving the room.

I… I just have to ask FRIDAY for help. She’ll send help. “F-FRIDAY?” Peter says to the ceiling.

“What do you need, MiniStark?”

“Can you ask MJ or Ned if they can meet me in whatever room this is? Tell them discreetly and make sure no one sees them leave.”

There’s a pause and for a second Peter thinks he’s doomed to lay here until his healing gives him enough strength to find someone. But then, he hears FRIDAY’s voice, “they have been informed and are coming your way.”

“Thanks FRIDAY” he manages to say before blinking once… twice… then, darkness.

___

“Ter…? Eter…?” what? What’s the noise, Peter thinks to himself.

“Peter, can you hear us?”

Slowly, he opens his eyes, quickly moving his hand up to shield himself from the bright lights. “Shoot, FRIDAY can you dim the lights please?” he hears MJ say before the light in the room seems to go to a darker glow, allowing him to open his eyes again. He looks around. In front of him are his two best friends. “Guys? What happened? How long was I out?”

“Only for about 30 minutes. FRIDAY alerted us that you were hurt and needed us. The intern lab part of the tour is almost over, are you okay?” “I, uh… I guess? I think so.”

“What happened?”

“I… it was… nothing I just…”

“It was Flash wasn’t it?”

He sighs, “yeah.”

“Y’know, Stark’s going to kill him.”

“NO! Please, no. Dad can’t know. He will kill him and I can’t deal with that. People will find out about my relationship with the Avengers and then they might figure out that I’m Spiderman and I don’t want to deal with that. Once I graduate and I finally decide it’s okay, I’ll reveal my identity. Until then I just want to be me, Peter Parker. Ordinary kid who might’ve sort’ve gotten accidentally bit by a radioactive spider.”

“I know Peter, but… I think he might already know. FRIDAY?”

“Boss and SSMWP (Star Spangled Man with a Plan) have already been alerted. Baby Monitor Protocol, Baby’s Gotta Boo-Boo has been activated.”

Peter groans, “I’m surprised they’re not here already. They’re probably working on getting Mr. Harrington fired and Flash expelled and took off recommendation for any good college in the country.”

“He deserves it. But we need to get back to the class, do you think you can walk?” Slowly, Peter uses the wall and MJ to stand up. He takes a single step forward, testing his ability to walk. Finally, when he realizes he’s able to walk, he lets go of MJ and takes a few steps on his own. He spreads his arm out and does a quick spin to face them, waving his hands almost as if to say “ta da”. “Great, you can walk ya dork. Guess that Spidey-healing of yours works faster than I thought.”

“Yeah, Uncle Bruce has been working on protein shakes and bars for me that increase the speed of it. Do I have any bruises that are visible?”

“You have a scar above your eyebrow and a small bruise on your arm, but that’s it.”

“Thank goodness. Let’s get back to the tour group before anyone else figures out that we’re gone.”

“Alright, but take it slow okay? We don’t need you passing out again.”

“Aye-aye captain,” he says, giving her a mock salute.

Before they leave MJ hands him a bottle of water and a protein bar. The protein bar was made specifically for Peter and helped with his enhanced metabolism and healing. Both MJ and Ned, as well as the Avengers when they were out with Peter, had them on hand. He eats it quickly, throwing away the wrapper in the trash and chugging the rest of the water as they leave the room to resume the tour.

They make their way back to the tour, quietly slipping in to the back seemingly unnoticed as the rest of the students watch Bruce give a demonstration on one of the intern’s newest projects. Mr. Harrington looks at Peter, giving him a stern look before quietly making his way over to him and pulling him to the side, “where were you, Parker?”

“I, I was in the bathroom?”

“You were not in the bathroom for 30 minutes. Flash informed me that he saw you trying to steal files from one of the rooms, is this true?”

“No, sir! I would never do such a thing. And anyways, all of the files are digital so I would have to hack into the SI mainframe and with FRIDAY that’d be nearly impossible.” “Listen Peter. You’re a good kid. Really smart. In fact, I have no doubt that when you go to college you’ll have no trouble getting an internship here. But, Stark Industries doesn’t accept high schoolers, no matter their smartness. This lie has gone far enough. Once we return to school you and I will be having a conversation with the principal as I have no other choice but to recommend you for expulsion.”

“But, sir! I’m not lying! Has nothing here you’ve seen today proven that?” “Peter, hacking into an AI and paying off the staff to pretend to know you isn’t proof. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were exempt from any chances of receiving an internship at Stark Industries. Now, go join the rest of the class. We will talk about this later.”

Peter slowly retreats back to Ned and MJ, head staring at the floor, trying not to make eye contact with Flash or Bruce. When he reaches his friends MJ gives him a questioning look, “Harrington is going to try and expel me,” he whispers.

“What do you mean? Why?”

“For lying and “trying to steal SI files.”

“But you aren’t lying, and why would you steal files? Ned asks.

“I don’t know. Let’s just… try and make it to the end of the day. I’m sure Dad or Aunt Pepper will clear it up and I’ll be fine. If not, well, I guess it’s time to actually go to MIT.”

“Dude, no. You can’t leave us.” “I’m not saying I am, but if I get expelled it’s not like I’ll have a choice. You guys can still come over and we can still hangout. Just… not at school.”

MJ sighs, “Stark better be able to figure this out, otherwise I’ll fight the school myself.”

“Thanks MJ,” Peter grins, turning back to focus on what Bruce is talking about.

“... so, that’s why we now have a testing room with bulletproof glass. Now, if you guys want to wonder around a bit, just try not to disturb the interns to much and leave if they say you’re bothering or distracting them.” he spreads out his arms, motioning for them to wander around the room.

The group disperses, walking around to look at different projects and some asking a few questions. Even Flash and goons look interested in what the interns are working on. Bruce walks casually over to Peter and his group, “hey kid. Where were you? Was my presentation really that boring?” he asks.

“Nah, got held up. Although, I’m sure it was great. Did Dad sign you up for this?” “Unfortunately. Except I’m not trying to embarrass you. However, there is another… surprise for you?”

“What is it-” he’s interrupted by a voice from across the room shouting, “Petey!”

Peter turns and sees Morgan running over to him. The interns around the room smile, used to the presence of the young Stark around the labs and actually enjoying her benign around. She was sweet and their favorite of Stark’s kids, after Peter. “Hey Morgana! What are you doing here?”

“Me and Happy are playing hide and seek! I decided to come see you.”

He laughs, “does Happy know you guys are playing hide and seek?”

“Nope!” she giggles.

“Come here M,” MJ says, opening her arms towards the little girl.

Morgan squeals in delight and runs to MJ, happily being picked up and swung around a few times before settling on her arms. Peter smiles before looking up at the nearest camera, “Hey FRIDAY, can you tell Happy that Morgan is down here in the Coffee Induced lab?”

“Of course, MiniStark.” she replies.

While they’re waiting for Happy to meet them they begin wandering around, chatting with a few of the interns and entertaining Morgan. A bit before Happy finds his way to the lab, Mr. Harrington spots the trio carrying around the young Stark and quickly makes his way over to them, “Mr. Parker, what is the meaning of this?”

“You mean the child?” “Of course I mean the child. Who is she and why is she in this highly dangerous lab?” “Sure, it’s actually fine. She’s Stark’s daughter and actually hangs out in the labs a lot. With adult, or teen, supervision of course.” one of the nearby interns chip in.

“Well adult supervision or not, a child should not be in a lab.”

During all of the commotion, Flash has taken a notice to Morgan. He instantly recognizes her from different press and runs over, “Hey MJ, why the heck are you holding Tony Stark’s daughter?” “Because she wanted me to hold her, why else Flash?” “You shouldn’t be holding her. She’d probably be way more comfortable in the hands of someone more higher-class then you. Isn’t that right, Morgana?”

“It’s Morgan! And no. I prefer MJ. she’s a lot nicer than you, meany.” Morgan snaps.

At that moment, Happy finally appears from the elevator, out of breath. He spots the situation and quickly runs over to the group, relieved to see he didn’t completely lose Morgan. “Morgan! Peter! Thank God I found you all. Morgan, what are you doing down here? You know you’re not supposed to be in the labs without supervision.” “But Petey and his friends are down here, so it’s fine!” she says.

“Come here, let’s get you upstairs and get you a snack, alright?” “Yay! I want Uncle Bucky’s cookies!” she exclaims, quickly transferring herself from MJ’s arms to Happy’s arms.”

“Thanks for helping Peter, I’ll see you tonight, alright?”

“Alright Happy, see you later!”

The rest of the class, having turned their attention to the commotion happening with Stark’s kid, just continues staring. How does Puny Parker know Tony Stark’s daughter? And how does his friends know her too? Mr. Harrington, still in shock, hasn’t been able to say anything at all. Flash, on the other hand, has a bucket load of things to say, “what the actual fuck Parker?”

“I- uh, what?”

“What the fuck is happening here. First the stunt with the scanners. Then pretending to know the interns. And then the thing with the nerf gun battle. How the actual heck are you doing this?” “Maybe he just wasn't lying, Flash.” MJ says, noticing that Peter seems to be at a lack of words at the moment.

“No, regular interns aren’t able to do this stuff. Regular interns don’t know the avengers and Tony Stark’s daughter. So what’s happening.” “Flash, I really don’t know what to tell you. I’m an intern here, you know this, or should. That’s all.” Flash tries to continue the conversation but Mars announces that they now have the chance to attend a Q & A with the Avengers themselves, causing everyone to rush over to the elevator, chatting amongst themselves about meeting the Avengers and the different questions they're going to ask. Flash glares at Peter before whispering, “when we get back to school, you’re dead Parker. Especially after I expose you in front of the Avengers at the Q & A.”

Peter watches in disbelief as Flash moves back to his goons and chats with them like nothing just happened. He looks to his friends for support. MJ shakes her head and wraps an arm around his shoulder, guiding him over to the group as they pile into the elevator. Ned offers him an apologetic smile. While in the elevator MJ promises to not let Flash get anywhere near Peter while Ned comes up with suggestions to let Peter stay at Stark industries when they leave so that he won’t have to interact with Flash when they get back to school. None of them notice the lack of Avengers in the Q & A room until a door slams open by the stage scaring everyone, including Peter.

#avengers #domesticavengers #avengerfanfiction #avengerfanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #peterparker #spiderman #peter parker #spidermom #spiderson #irondad #super family #superfamily #marvel

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